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TESTING THE FLORISTIC QUALITY ASSESSMENT INDEX AS AN INDICATOR OF WETLAND CONDITION ALONG GRADIENTS OF HUMAN INFLUENCE
Citation:
Lopez, R D. AND M. S. Fennessy. TESTING THE FLORISTIC QUALITY ASSESSMENT INDEX AS AN INDICATOR OF WETLAND CONDITION ALONG GRADIENTS OF HUMAN INFLUENCE. ECOLOGICAL APPLICATIONS 12(2):487-497, (2002).
Impact/Purpose:
The primary objectives of this research are to:
Develop methodologies so that landscape indicator values generated from different sensors on different dates (but in the same areas) are comparable; differences in metric values result from landscape changes and not differences in the sensors;
Quantify relationships between landscape metrics generated from wall-to-wall spatial data and (1) specific parameters related to water resource conditions in different environmental settings across the US, including but not limited to nutrients, sediment, and benthic communities, and (2) multi-species habitat suitability;
Develop and validate multivariate models based on quantification studies;
Develop GIS/model assessment protocols and tools to characterize risk of nutrient and sediment TMDL exceedence;
Complete an initial draft (potentially web based) of a national landscape condition assessment.
This research directly supports long-term goals established in ORDs multiyear plans related to GPRA Goal 2 (Water) and GPRA Goal 4 (Healthy Communities and Ecosystems), although funding for this task comes from Goal 4. Relative to the GRPA Goal 2 multiyear plan, this research is intended to "provide tools to assess and diagnose impairment in aquatic systems and the sources of associated stressors." Relative to the Goal 4 Multiyear Plan this research is intended to (1) provide states and tribes with an ability to assess the condition of waterbodies in a scientifically defensible and representative way, while allowing for aggregation and assessment of trends at multiple scales, (2) assist Federal, State and Local managers in diagnosing the probable cause and forecasting future conditions in a scientifically defensible manner to protect and restore ecosystems, and (3) provide Federal, State and Local managers with a scientifically defensible way to assess current and future ecological conditions, and probable causes of impairments, and a way to evaluate alternative future management scenarios.
Description:
Biological indicators of ecosystem integrity are increasingly being sought for use in ecosystem assessment and goal-setting for restoration projects. We tested the effectiveness of a plant community-based bioassessment tool, the floristic quality assessment index (FQAI) in 20 depressional wetlands in Ohio, USA. A priori, the 20 depressional wetlands were classified by type and ranked to form a disturbance gradient according to the local landscape condition. Ranks were based on surrounding land cover characteristics, vegetated buffer characteristics, and the extent of human-induced hydrologic alteration at the wetland site. The index was negatively correlatedwith the disturbance rank of a wetland and with the distance to neighboring wetlands (P = 0.01). Index values were lower for wetlands surrounded by agricultural or urban land use, wetlands with less vegetation on the wetland perimeter, and wetlands with more hydrologic modification, and at sites with greater distances to other wetlands.The wetlands with lower FQAI values tended to be dominated by plants that are typical of heavily cultivated landscapes or urban regions. Thus, the index is interpreted as a measure of environmental factors that maintain and control plant communities. The index was not correlated with differences in wetland surface water chemistry ( = 0.05) but was positively correlated with soil total organic carbon (P = 0.01), phosphorus (P = 0.05), and calcium (P = 0.05). Repeated wetland sampling in the summer and autumn revealed that the floristic quality assessment index could be useful for the assessment and monitoring of wetland ecosystems and for tracking wetland restorationprojects over time.