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Regional Monitoring Networks to Detect Climate Change Effects in Stream Ecosystems (External Review Draft)
EPA announced the release of the draft report, Regional Monitoring Networks to Detect Climate Change Effects in Stream Ecosystems (External Review Draft) in a November 28, 2014 Federal Register Notice. This draft report is provided for a 30-day public review and comment period. Any comments received on the draft report within the next 60-days will be considered by EPA in their revisions. Comments should be in writing and must be received by EPA by December 29, 2014.
Citation:
U.S. EPA. Regional Monitoring Networks to Detect Climate Change Effects in Stream Ecosystems (External Review Draft). U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, EPA/600/R-14/341, 2014.
Impact/Purpose:
We are working with states, tribes, river basin commissions (RBCs), and other entities in different parts of the country to establish Regional Monitoring Networks (RMNs) to collect data that will further our understanding of biological, thermal, and hydrologic conditions in freshwater wadeable streams and allow for detection of climatic changes and trends. The document describes the framework for the RMNs that have been developed in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, and Southeast regions for riffle-dominated, freshwater wadeable streams, so that other regions can initiate similar efforts. Current RMNs requested documentation of this work, and interested EPA Regions and states also requested a blueprint for developing such RMNs. This report fulfills both requests.
Description:
The United States Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) is working with its regional offices, states, tribes, and other entities to establish Regional Monitoring Networks (RMNs) at which biological, thermal, and hydrologic data will be collected from freshwater wadeable streams to quantify and monitor changes in baseline condition, including climate change effects. RMNs have been established in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, and Southeast, and efforts are expanding into other regions. The need for RMNs stems from the lack of long-term, contemporaneous biological, thermal, and hydrologic data, particularly at minimally disturbed sites. Data collected at RMNs will be used to: detect temporal trends; investigate relationships between biological, thermal, and hydrologic data; explore ecosystem responses and recovery from extreme weather events; test hypotheses and predictive models related to climate change; and quantify natural variability. RMN surveys build on existing bioassessment efforts, with the goal of collecting comparable data that can be pooled efficiently at a regional level. This document describes the development of the current RMNs for riffle-dominated, freshwater wadeable streams. It contains information on selection of candidate sites, expectations for data collection, the rationale for collecting these data, and provides examples of how the RMN data will be used and analyzed.
URLs/Downloads:
FR Notice: Nov 28, 2014
Regional Monitoring Networks to Detect Climate Change Effects in Stream Ecosystems (PDF, 249 pp, 3182 KB, about PDF)
Response to External Peer Review Comments of EPA's Draft Document "Regional Monitoring Networks to Detect Climate Change Effects in Stream Ecosystems" (PDF, 52 pp, 324 KB, about PDF)