Grantee Research Project Results
2003 Progress Report: Integrated Assessment of Estuarine Ecosystems
EPA Grant Number: R828684C001Subproject: this is subproject number 001 , established and managed by the Center Director under grant R828684
(EPA does not fund or establish subprojects; EPA awards and manages the overall grant for this center).
Center: EAGLES - Atlantic Slope Consortium
Center Director: Brooks, Robert P.
Title: Integrated Assessment of Estuarine Ecosystems
Investigators: Whigham, Dennis F. , Rheinhardt, Rick D. , Gallegos, Charles L. , Varnell, Lyle M. , Brinson, Mark M. , Marra, Peter P. , Hines, Anson , Havens, Kirk
Current Investigators: Whigham, Dennis F. , Gallegos, Charles L. , Hines, Anson , Marra, Peter P. , Hershner, Carl , King, Ryan , DeLuca, William , Bilkovic, Donna Marie
Institution: Smithsonian Environmental Research Center , Virginia Institute of Marine Science , East Carolina University
Current Institution: Smithsonian Environmental Research Center , East Carolina University , Virginia Institute of Marine Science
EPA Project Officer: Packard, Benjamin H
Project Period: March 1, 2001 through February 28, 2005 (Extended to February 26, 2006)
Project Period Covered by this Report: March 1, 2002 through February 28, 2003
RFA: Environmental Indicators in the Estuarine Environment Research Program (2000) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Water , Aquatic Ecosystems , Ecological Indicators/Assessment/Restoration
Objective:
This is one of four subprojects under the Atlantic Slope Consortium (ASC) Center. The overall objective of the estuarine component of the ASC research project is to develop indicators for elements of hydrologically linked estuarine ecosystems, including aquatic animals, estuarine and coastal wetlands, and coastal waterbirds.
Progress Summary:
This subproject has been broken down into a number of interactive teams, each focusing on a different component of the estuarine system. The activities of each of these teams in 2003 are discussed below.
Estuarine Faunal Team (Smithsonian Environmental Research Center [SERC]): Hines, King, Craige, Sparks
Data Collection and Analysis. Sampling of nearshore zones of the estuarine segments in 2003 followed protocols used in 2002. A total of 132 nearshore stations in 22 estuarine segments were sampled in July and August 2003. In addition to nearshore sampling, bottom trawls of deepwater areas of 13 subestuaries were conducted in September and October 2003.
To date, all physical, chemical, and fish data collected during the nearshore and trawl surveys have been entered into the SERC database. Quality assurance/quality control also has been completed and analyses have begun. Benthic invertebrate samples currently are being processed.
Although numerous other analyses are still underway, the estuarine faunal team has produced a manuscript on the effects of watershed land use and shoreline habitat on blue crabs and bivalves in the estuarine segments. The paper has been accepted (pending minor revisions) for publication in the Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology (King, et al., in press, 2004). The paper presents these taxa as key indicators of estuarine health, but also identified important abiotic predictors of their distribution that are easily measured and thus may serve as cost-effective indicators for targeting features for conservation or identifying areas that likely are to be degraded.
Synergy and Integration With Other Working Groups and Institutions. The SERC estuarine team has been working closely with the Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences (VIMS) estuarine team of the ASC. SERC and VIMS both have adopted a study design that focuses on nearshore areas of small estuarine segments of the Mid-Atlantic slope. Both groups are studying a subset of estuarine segments. SERC and VIMS also coordinated estuarine sampling methods so that many data will be compatible for integrated analyses and publications. Moreover, these data are compatible with many existing data sets (e.g., Chesapeake Bay Program, Maryland Department of Natural Resources [DNR]), which will allow both groups to apply existing indexes of estuarine condition (e.g., benthic Indices of Biotic Integrity [IBIs]) as well as link to data spanning much larger spatial scales (e.g., large watersheds, regions).
Outside of the ASC, the SERC estuarine working group has been in communication with the Estuarine and Great Lakes (EaGLes) Center (Great Lakes Environmental Indicators). As data analyses progress during 2004, the two groups will be in a position to contrast similar indicators between two very different estuarine environments. The SERC estuarine working group has also been active in developing synergistic relationships with state agencies in the Chesapeake Bay region, including collaboration with the Maryland Department of the Environment on fish tissue data collection and analysis and identification of benthic samples.
Avian Research Team (SERC): Marra, DeLuca
Data Collection and Analysis. The goal of the avian research team is to develop indicators of watershed condition using individual-, population-, and community-level attributes of wetland, riparian, and water bird assemblages. Sampling riparian bird communities was a new addition in 2003 and will help link watershed processes to estuarine condition.
During the 2003 breeding season, point counts were conducted in wetlands and riparian zones of 20 estuarine segments that represented a range of land cover types. These data will be used to characterize avian abundance and species richness among the estuarine segments. To measure abundance and species richness of open-water foraging birds at each wetland study site, we conducted water transect surveys in each subestuary of every watershed.
Habitat measurements were also made. To measure marsh bird habitat, vegetation measurements were taken at each of the point-count locations that were not measured in 2002. Measurements included species composition, horizontal structure, and vertical structure. To measure riparian bird habitat, vegetation measurements were taken for segments in five study watersheds. Measurements included canopy cover, canopy height, ground cover, number of stems less than 8 cm diameter breast height (DBH), and tree species with greater than 8 cm DBH.
Bill DeLuca completed his master’s thesis in May 2003 (see publications). The avian team completed marsh data analysis and developed an Index of Marsh Bird Community Integrity(IMBCI). Results from a nonparametric changepoint analysis indicated that marsh bird community integrity was reduced significantly when the amount of urban/suburban development within 500 m and 1,000 m of the marsh exceeded 14 percent and 25 percent, respectively. There was no effect of land use on marsh condition at the watershed scale. These findings have been submitted to Wetlands (King and Whigham, submitted, 2004).
Data entry and quality assurance have been completed for water bird surveys and riparian bird and riparian bird habitat data. Currently, a Water Bird IBI is being developed and preliminary results show index sensitivity to urban development at the watershed scale and to cropland at local scales. We plan to submit these results for publication in April 2004 (DeLuca, et al., submitted, 2004).
Synergy and Integration With Other Working Groups and Institutions. The SERC avian team has been coordinating efforts with the SERC estuarine faunal team and vice-versa. In Years 2 and 3 of the project, both teams sampled the same estuarine segments to facilitate integration of indicators. Consequently, water-foraging bird data are being linked to fish abundance, habitat, and water quality estimates. The SERC avian team has also been working with Tim O’Connell from the Pennsylvania State University (PSU) watershed group. Tim has provided expertise on avian IBI development, and both groups have discussed ways to integrate their IBI results from a variety of different habitats.
Wetland and Stream Assessment Team (SERC): Whigham, King, Sparks
Data Collection and Analysis. The SERC wetland/stream team undertook several research activities during Year 3 of the project.
Stream Bioassessment. As part of a collaborative effort with the Maryland DNR’s Maryland Biological Steam Survey (MBSS), SERC sampled 62 streams from 22 estuarine segments in spring of Year 3 of the project. SERC is utilizing new and existing MBSS data to characterize the condition of streams in the estuarine segments and to better understand the effect of land use on stream ecosystems in this region. These data will be used to calculate the coastal plain benthic IBI. Ryan King, Matt Baker, Dennis Whigham, Don Weller, and Tom Jordan have completed a manuscript with DNR biologists on spatial considerations for linking watershed land cover to various stream indicators in coastal plain streams using existing data from the MBSS (Whigham, et al., in preparation, 2004).
Wetland Vegetation Sampling. The SERC avian team collected data on macrophyte species composition in brackish wetlands from the estuarine segments to support their bird surveys. These data will also be used by the SERC wetland/stream team to develop wetland vegetation indicators, with particular emphasis on the extent of Phragmites australis invasion. To help identify potential causes of Phragmites expansion, particularly linkages to nutrient enrichment, Phragmites leaf samples were collected from the estuarine segments this summer for leaf-tissue nutrient and metals analysis. All samples were analyzed for C, N, and P.
Riparian Assessments. Bill Sipple was hired to conduct riparian assessments as part of the unified ASC stream, wetland, and riparian (SWR) indicator study. Bill completed 20 site assessments in each of the Back River (developed), Southeast Creek (agricultural), and St. Mary’s River (forested) watersheds. These data were collected following the SWR protocol developed by ASC. Data were submitted to PSU in mid-2003 for entry into the ASC SWR database.
Synergy and Integration With Other Working Groups and Institutions. The SERC wetland/stream team is working closely with the SERC watershed/spatial analysis team to develop linkages between spatial data and site-level stream assessment data. One current activity is the application of a variety of distance-weighting schemes to land cover data to identify the most influential scales and patterns of watershed land cover on stream biological condition. A second planned activity is the integration of results from the SERC spatial team’s summary of land-use patterns in estuarine segments to estuarine water quality and biological indicators.
The SERC wetland/stream team also anticipates integrating with PSU to explore how relationships between land use in coastal plain streams may differ in other physiographic provinces where most of PSU’s work has been conducted.
A significant synergistic activity outside of the ASC has been the collaboration with the Maryland DNR and integration with the MBSS, as previously described. The Maryland DNR has provided guidance on using much of the public-domain data and has been quick to provide SERC with inhouse data. This working relationship has been mutually beneficial, as the SERC stream data have also been submitted to the Maryland DNR and the Maryland Water Monitoring Council for their databases. It also has increased visibility of the EaGLes Program.
Estuarine Shallow Water Fish Habitats (VIMS)
Data Collection and Analysis. During June-August 2003, we surveyed 12 watersheds with varying land uses within the Chesapeake Bay estuarine region and Albemarle Sound, NC. Of these watersheds, two that were sampled in 2002 were reassessed in 2003 because of the lack of historic data in these regions. Many of the watersheds selected will coincide with efforts at SERC and PSU in assessing the health of estuarine wetland systems.
Our sampling protocols targeted zooplankton, macroinvertebrate and fish communities, water quality measures, sediment type, and shoreline and physical habitat assessments. Within each watershed we sampled five sites, corresponding to historic beach seine locations when present. At these locations, all of the above components were sampled except for the fish communities, which are to be represented by ongoing survey efforts. In watersheds containing less than five historic seine sites, we sampled sites randomly to supplement the seine data sets. We then utilized the same protocol followed in the historic surveys to sample fish communities; we also sampled all of the above listed components.
The abundance of fish and zooplankton communities has been enumerated for both sample years. Additionally, biomass measures were estimated for zooplankton communities. Macroinvertebrate abundance and biomass estimates are near completion, suspended sediment analyses were completed, and sediment typing is near completion.
Eight metrics were assessed for consistency as indicators of aquatic ecosystem health based on fish community structure and function. Metrics were chosen that represent key aspects of fish community integrity, as well as the elements of life history that are dependent on estuarine condition. As a first step in the calculation of fish community metrics, fish species were placed into several guilds based on their documented life histories. Guilds were constructed based on reproductive strategy, trophic level, primary life history, habitat preference, and origin. Fish community metrics then were calculated for each sample year.
In 2002, links among habitat conditions were supported in the relationships between in-stream and shoreline condition, as well as shoreline and adjacent watershed land use. Shoreline condition and in-stream habitat measures were correlated significantly, indicating a negative association between shoreline alterations and available in-stream structural habitat such as submerged aquatic vegetation and woody debris. Dominant watershed land use was reflected in shoreline land use conditions for all three of the categories.
Shallow-water estuarine condition was evaluated using a Fish Community Index (FCI) developed based on 2002 data. Seven of the eight tested fish metrics exhibited similar trends in correlation and thus were combined into the final FCI. Habitat condition metrics developed at multiple spatial scales (in-stream habitat, shoreline condition, and watershed land use) were evaluated for correlation to the FCI. Biotic responses were correlated with habitat condition in the nearshore and along the shoreline. In-stream habitat had the strongest correlation with FCI scores and could discriminate among categorized habitat values. Shoreline and watershed land use condition were able to discriminate FCI scores in only highly altered habitat conditions. Analyses of the data sets suggest that fish community structure and the easily observed landscape conditions (watershed and shoreline) may be correlated. This association may provide the basis for development of a diagnostic indicator of estuarine condition. Preliminary analyses of fish community data from 2003 sampling indicate similar trends in correlation as evident in 2002.
Future Activities:
Estuarine Faunal Team (SERC). We will use nonparametric changepoint analysis in conjunction with classification and regression tree to estimate ecological thresholds and provide risk estimates associated with increasing levels of stressors in the estuarine segments, which include indicators developed by other working groups in other portions of the watersheds. Ordination techniques will be used to examine multivariate community patterns and their relationships with abiotic or other biotic variables. A nearshore fish IBI has been developed using VIMS shoreline seine data. The SERC plans to employ this IBI to explore its applicability to estuarine segments. A joint manuscript, led by the VIMS, on fish and possibly benthos is also being planned for 2004.
Avian Research Team (SERC). We will largely be dedicated to preparing a manuscript on the Water Bird IBI and another manuscript on the influences of land use on breeding Red-winged Blackbirds and other marsh nesting passerines in spring of Year 4 of the project. Data collection in Year 4 of the project will be restricted to completing the riparian bird habitat sampling and continuing to monitor the marsh bird communities of the nine intensely studied estuarine segments.
Wetland and Stream Assessment Team (SERC). We will use SERC stream data to characterize the condition of the stream network of each estuarine segment and evaluate the potential for a linkage between stream and estuarine health. Linkages between stream ratings and estuarine indicators measured by the estuarine faunal, avian, and optical properties teams will be explored. In addition, s everal manuscripts are in preparation (2004): (1) a King, et al., manuscript on spatial considerations and stream indicators; (2) a King, et al., manuscript that will identify levels of watershed land use, particularly urban/suburban development, that result in ecological thresholds in coastal plain and piedmont streams; (3) a King and Whigham manuscript on the linkage between watershed land use and N and P concentrations in Phragmites; and (4) a Whigham, et al., manuscript on the estuarine segment approach to evaluating watershed effects on estuarine indicators. This paper will draw on results from all ASC institutions and will present an integrated, synthetic overview of our studies of stream, wetland, and estuarine indicators.
Technical Report:
Full Final Technical Report (PDF, 96pp., 2.88MB, about PDF)
Journal Articles on this Report : 1 Displayed | Download in RIS Format
Other subproject views: | All 37 publications | 6 publications in selected types | All 5 journal articles |
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Other center views: | All 166 publications | 51 publications in selected types | All 44 journal articles |
Type | Citation | ||
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King RS, Hines AH, Craige FD, Grap S. Regional, watershed, and local correlates of blue crab and bivalve abundances in subestuaries of Chesapeake Bay, USA. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 2005;319(1-2):101-116. |
R828684C001 (2003) R828684C001 (2004) R828684C001 (Final) |
not available |
Supplemental Keywords:
integrated assessment, aquatic ecosystem, wetland, stream, estuary, biological integrity, landscape ecology, scaling, health effects, ecological effect, risk assessment, socioeconomic, decisionmaking, remote sensing, Mid-Atlantic, Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program, EMAP, aquatic biota, aquatic ecosystem, indicators, bioindicator, biomonitoring, coastal ecosystem, contaminated sediment, degradation, ecological assessment, ecological exposure, ecosystem assessment, ecosystem indicators, ecosystem stress, environmental stress, estuarine ecosystems, integrated assessment, integrative indicators, land use, nutrient stress, remote sensing,, RFA, ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT, Water, ECOSYSTEMS, Ecosystem Protection/Environmental Exposure & Risk, estuarine research, Water & Watershed, exploratory research environmental biology, Ecosystem/Assessment/Indicators, Ecosystem Protection, Ecological Effects - Environmental Exposure & Risk, Aquatic Ecosystems, Ecological Monitoring, Watersheds, Ecological Indicators, Risk Assessment, bioindicator, coastal ecosystem, degradation, water sheds, ecological risk assessment, biogeochemical study, estuaries, aquatic biota , ecosystem assessment, nutrients, integrated assessment, ecological assessment, ecosystem indicators, estuarine ecosystems, environmental indicators, environmental stress, coastal ecosystems, integrative indicators, water quality, ecology assessment models, watershed assessmentRelevant Websites:
Full Final Technical Report (PDF, 96pp., 2.88MB, about PDF)
http://www.asc.psu.edu Exit
Progress and Final Reports:
Original AbstractMain Center Abstract and Reports:
R828684 EAGLES - Atlantic Slope Consortium Subprojects under this Center: (EPA does not fund or establish subprojects; EPA awards and manages the overall grant for this center).
R828684C001 Integrated Assessment of Estuarine Ecosystems
R828684C002 Development of an Optical Indicator of Habitat Suitability for Submersed Aquatic Vegetation
R828684C003 Integrated Assessment of Watersheds
R828684C004 Socioeconomic and Institutional Research
The perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.
Project Research Results
5 journal articles for this subproject
Main Center: R828684
166 publications for this center
44 journal articles for this center