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THE PACIFIC COAST ESTUARINE INFORMATION SYSTEM: CREATING A BASELINE FOR THE FUTURE
Citation:
Reusser, D., H Lee II, L. Hillmann, AND D A. Kluza. THE PACIFIC COAST ESTUARINE INFORMATION SYSTEM: CREATING A BASELINE FOR THE FUTURE. Presented at 13th International Conference on Aquatic Invasive Species, Ennis, Ireland, September 19-23, 2004.
Description:
Coastal researchers and managers have a growing need for ready access to a diversity of
data types, including estuarine-specific lists of native and nonindigenous species and estuarine/landscape characteristics. These data are key components in ecological risk assessments in general and in "early detection - rapid response" strategies for invasives species in particular. However, this information is scattered in the peer-reviewed and gray literature as well as State and Federal databases. To address this problem, the U.S EPA and USGS are developing a database, Pacific Coast Estuarine Information System (PCEIS), synthesizing biological and landscape characteristics for the estuaries of Oregon, Washington, and California, USA. Currently, PCEIS contains georeferenced information on 182 estuaries and more than 500 sub-estuaries/tributaries. PCEIS summarizes the occurrence of both native and nonindigenous species of benthos, fishes, and seagrasses for each estuary. Inclusion of the native species greatly enhances the database's utility such as allowing the ranking of estuaries by the relative percent invasion or generating baselines of native species to evaluate future impacts of invasive species on indigenous fauna. Presently PCEIS contains more than 2600 species. With growing recognition of the role of landscape attributes and loadings on estuarine structure and function, we are also summarizing key estuarine and landscape characteristics, such as areas of the estuary and associated watershed, percent intertidal area, land use patterns, and nutrient loadings to the watershed. This information is initially being captured in a user-friendly, stand-alone Microsoft Access@ database but will eventually be linked to the USGS's The National Map.
In addition to generating the baseline lists of native and nonindigenous species, outputs from PCEIS are used as inputs into "Genetic Algorithm for Rule-set Prediction" (GARP, a machine- learning algorithm). GARP is a spatially explicit ecological niche model used to predict the potential geographic distributions of invasive species based on matching of environmental requirements. GARP has been used successfully in predicting distributions of terrestrial and freshwater invaders. One of the challenges in applying GARP to estuarine invaders is obtaining environmental data layers (e.g., salinity) at a [me enough spatial scale. By synthesizing such environmental data for the Pacific Coast, PCEIS allows us to evaluate the utility of this model for estuarine ecosystems. Additionally, the standardized taxonomic species lists generated from PCEIS are being used to develop regional "master species lists". Such regional taxonomic lists are used to assess local deviations from the expected "average taxonomic distinctness", a recently proposed practical index of ecological condition.