You are here:
COORDINATING, COMMUNICATING AND PERFORMING COMPLEX RESEARCH THAT IDENTIFIES VULNERABLE STREAM ECOSYSTEM IN THE MID-ATLANTIC REGION
Citation:
Flum, T, S M. Cormier, F A. Fulk, AND B Subramanian. COORDINATING, COMMUNICATING AND PERFORMING COMPLEX RESEARCH THAT IDENTIFIES VULNERABLE STREAM ECOSYSTEM IN THE MID-ATLANTIC REGION. Presented at Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, Philadelphia, PA, November 12-14, 1999.
Description:
The USEPA's Regional Vulnerability Assessment (ReVA) program was created to advance the scientific basis for protecting vulnerable ecosystems at a regional scale. As a first step, the ReVa program will coordinate, communicate and perform complex research that will identify vulnerable stream and forest ecosystems in the mid-Atlantic region. The streams component of the ReVA program is building upon a list of stressors identified for the mid-Atlantic region that include such concerns as stream acidification, habitat modification including hydrologic alteration, toxic organic compounds and metals, nuisance algal blooms, exotic species, and fisheries management. One objective of the ReVa program is to develop maps of the important stressors. These maps will be generated using GIS tools including remote sensing and interpolation techniques such as geostatistical models, multivariate statistical models, and first principles models. Statistical models, for example, were used to examine relationships between stressors and aquatic receptors based on ecological, epidemiological, and statistical inferences. To illustrate the ReVa approach, examples are presented for mine drainage and statistical modeling of nurient and polyaromatic hydrocarbon exposures. Ultimately, models will be developed to project changes in the important concerns relevant to streams so that future conditions and risks can be estimated at the regional scale.