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AN INTEGRATED COASTAL-WATERSHED MONITORING FRAMEWORK FOR ASSESSMENT
Citation:
Detenbeck, N E., S L. Batterman, V. J. Brady, J. C. Brazner, M F. Moffett, V M. Snarski, D L. Taylor, AND J A. Thompson. AN INTEGRATED COASTAL-WATERSHED MONITORING FRAMEWORK FOR ASSESSMENT. Presented at Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program Symposium 2001, Coastal Monitoring through Partnerships, Pensacola, FL, April 24-27, 2001.
Description:
An approach for watershed classification in support of assessments, disgnosis of biological impairment, and prioritization of watershed restorations has been tested in coastal watersheds surrounding the western arm of Lake Superior and is currently being assessed for a series of 22 coastal wetland region (USFS ecological units), then by two watershed characteristics related to hydrologic thresholds: watershed storage (lake + wetland area/watershed area) and forest fragmentation. The ecoregion scale was not fine enough to establish reference condition or driving factors influencing water quality or community composition; however stratification by ecological unit, storage, and fragmentation explained a significant amount of variation in water quality and periphyton, macroinvertebrate, and fish communities. In addition to watershed classes,diatom communities were influenced by habitat features (flow, complexity, conductrivity, bank erosion) as well as macroinvertebrate abundance and community structure. Macroinvertebrate communities in both ecological units responded primarily to substrate, hydrology, and temperature differences in thermal regime which were correlated with both forest fragmentation and watershed storage. This approach is being extended to Lake Michigan coastal wetlands selected through a classic EMAP design (stratified by ecoregion and size class) with assessment of alternate approaches to calculate watershed indices of flashiness in areas of mixed land-use. Watershed flashiness will be related to indicators of sediment and nutrient exposure, and to indices of biotic integrity for vegetation macroinvertebrate, and fish communities in coastal wetlands.