You are here:
THE WESTERN EMAP APPROACH TO ASSESSMENT OF COASTAL ECOLOGICAL CONDITION
Citation:
Nelson, W G. THE WESTERN EMAP APPROACH TO ASSESSMENT OF COASTAL ECOLOGICAL CONDITION. Presented at EPA Regional/ORD Topic Workshop on Critical Ecosystems, Keystone, CO, June 17-20, 2002.
Description:
The primary objective of the Western Coastal Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (WEMAP) is the assessment of ecological condition of the coastal systems of Washington, Oregon, and California. WEMAP also includes two associated pilot projects to demonstrate feasibility of coastal condition assessments in Alaska and Hawaii. By 2003, WEMAP will have examined condition of soft sediment habitats including low salt marsh, intertidal flats, and shallow subtidal habitats of estuaries, and continental shelf habitats down to a depth of 120 m for the three west coast states. The Hawaii pilot project will begin to establish methods for assessment of hard bottom habitats such as rock outcrops and coral reefs, while assessment methods for deep water habitats will also be examined as part of the efforts in Alaska and Southern California.
As an element of the larger National Coastal Assessment, WEMAP utilizes a common set of indicators, a unified approach to achieving high standards of quality assurance, a standard approach to sampling design, and a common approach to data analysis for all indicators and geographic regions. WEMAP has evolved from a decade long series of regional coastal assessment programs, and continues to have a principal focus on indicators derived from the Sediment Quality Triad approach, namely sediment toxicity, benthic community structure, and sediment contaminant levels. Within the draft framework proposed by the Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) for assessing ecological condition, WEMAP has focused most effort on examining essential ecological attributes within the categories of Biotic Condition and Chemical and Physical Characteristics, but is exploring more explicit incorporation of measures of Landscape Condition. In 2002, WEMAP will have two pilot efforts to evaluate a number of landscape metrics as indicators of coastal wetland condition. More explicit incorporation of measures of natural disturbance regime are needed as the program moves from the status of pilot project to on-going monitoring mode. The greatest challenges will be to effectively incorporate meaningful measurements of ecological attributes within the SAB framework category of Ecological Processes. This will also ultimately will require a simultaneous approach for incorporating Hydrology/Geomorphology measures through an effective coastal classification system.