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METHODS FOR AQUATIC RESOURCE ASSESSMENT (MARA) FY 2008 - 2012
Citation:
PAULSEN, S. G. METHODS FOR AQUATIC RESOURCE ASSESSMENT (MARA) FY 2008 - 2012. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, EPA/620/R-07/004 (NTIS PB2012-110752), 2008.
Impact/Purpose:
Transfer tools to OW and support the national implementation of these tools.
Description:
For the past 17 years, members of the Freshwater Ecology Branch (FEB) at EPA’s Western Ecology Division (WED) have been engaged in research to develop the concepts and tools that would allow EPA and it’s partners to monitor the status and trends in the condition of freshwater systems and the stresses impacting them. In addition to the research, FEB has also conducted large regional demonstration projects of how these tools can be used to result in the type of information needed by EPA. After the past 17 years of research, the EPA’s Office of Water (OW) has stepped forward to implement these tools in partnership with the States and Tribal nations. This document describes the breadth of activities in which members of FEB will be engaged as we transfer these tools to OW and support the national implementation of the tools. The work is captured under the banner “Methods for Aquatic Research Assessment (MARA). Four foci are proposed: 1. Provision of technical support for the Office of Water sponsored national aquatic surveys. 2. Evaluation of the monitoring designs and indicators needed by EPA Program Offices to meet their Government Performance Results Act (GPRA) commitments and to look for efficiencies that might arise if they collaborated with the OW national surveys. 3. Resolution of as many issues relevant to monitoring as possible by analyzing the data from past surveys in the mid-Atlantic, New England and the West. 4. Evaluation of existing indicators of condition and stress for relevance to the new direction of ORD’s ecological research program – ecosystem goods and services.