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Science Products
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Science Products
This page provides information on selected scientific papers, reports, and other products developed by researchers in the Ecological Research Program in EPA's Office of Research and Development.
More information on science products
ReVA: Approaches and Tools for Environmental Assessment and Management
The Regional Vulnerability Assessment Program (ReVA) has developed a suite of approaches and web-based tool kits that allow environmental managers and planners to evaluate existing information to make decisions about prioritizing resources to protect, enhance, or restore ecological resources. ReVA's Environmental Decision Toolkits (EDTs) have been used to assess vulnerability of environments that provide such services such as clean water, clean air, and quality of life, illustrating the trade-offs associated with alternative management decisions by looking at the future implications of today's potential actions.
CADDIS: Assessment Tool to Identify Causes of Biological Impairments
CADDIS is an online application that helps scientists and engineers find, access, organize, use and share information to conduct causal assessments in aquatic systems. It is based on EPA's Stressor Identification process which is a formal method for identifying causes of impairments in aquatic systems and watersheds. Future plans include modules on deriving empirical stressor-response relationships, stressor-specific tolerance values, and databases and syntheses of relevant literature on sediments and toxic metals.
CMAQ: Modeling Tool to Evaluate Impact of Air Quality Management Practices
The Community Multi-scale Air Quality (CMAQ) modeling system has been designed to approach air quality as a whole by including state-of-the-science capabilities for modeling multiple air quality issues, including tropospheric ozone, fine particles, toxics, acid deposition, and visibility degradation. In this way, the development of CMAQ involves the scientific expertise from each of these areas and combines the capabilities to enable a community modeling practice. CMAQ was also designed to have multi-scale capabilities so that separate models were not needed for urban and regional scale air quality modeling.
National Landcover Database to Assess Ecological Conditions
EPA played critical roles in the Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics (MRLC) Consortium that developed — and recently updated — the National Land Cover Database (NLCD). Based on remote sensing data, the NLCD is the sole source of consistently classified land cover for the United States. The database provides important metrics for assessing national ecological conditions.
EMAP: Monitoring and Assessment Tools
The Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (EMAP) is a research program to develop the tools necessary to monitor and assess the status and trends of national ecological resources. Products include:
National Coastal Assessment
EMAP has produced three comprehensive assessments of the condition of the nation's estuaries for the 2001, 2005, and 2007 National Coastal Condition Reports, developed in partnership with EPA regions and Office of Water, 24 marine coastal states, U.S. Geological Survey and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The reports are available here.Western Streams and National Stream Assessment
This comprehensive, cooperative effort has produced the first estimate on the condition of wadeable streams in the Western United States, leading to a national stream monitoring plan -- the first National Wadeable Streams Assessment (EPA 2005). This establishes a baseline against which future changes and trends in national and regional stream condition can be measured. The assessment is available here.Temporally Integrated Monitoring of Ecosystems/Long Term Monitoring (TIME/LTM) of Acid Sensitive Lakes and Streams
EMAP's TIME/LTM research has been critical in demonstrating that acidity levels in acid-sensitive lakes and streams have been significantly reduced since the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments. The results stemming from this monitoring approach have allowed EPA's Office of Air to establish that related programs and policies are improving the condition of these systems. The report is available here (PDF). (92 pp, 4.59MB)
EaGLe: Coastal Ecological Indicators to Monitor Conditions
EPA's Science to Achieve Results (STAR) program established five Estuarine and Great Lake (EaGLe) research projects with university consortia 
to develop the next generation of coastal ecological indicators. EaGLe researchers have developed 65 new or improved coastal indicators for evaluating ecosystem conditions in environments ranging from small individual coastal habitats to entire regions. These tools and methods are being adopted or considered for adoption by states, regions, and others to provide a comprehensive coastal monitoring program.