![[logo] US EPA](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081106015800im_/http://www.epa.gov/epafiles/images/logo_epaseal.gif){kind=logo}
2004 Progress Report: Development of Environmental Indicators of Condition, Integrity, and Sustainability in the Coastal Regions of the US Great Lakes Basin
EPA Grant Number: R828675Center: EAGLES - Great Lakes Environmental Indicators Project
Center Director: Niemi, Gerald J.
Title: Development of Environmental Indicators of Condition, Integrity, and Sustainability in the Coastal Regions of the US Great Lakes Basin
Investigators: Niemi, Gerald J. , Axler, Richard , Bertram, Paul , Hanowski, JoAnn M. , Host, George E. , Howe, Robert W. , Johnson, Lucinda , Johnston, Carol A. , Kelly, John R. , Keough, Janet , Kingston, John C. , Mount, David , Reavie, Euan D. , Regal, Ronald R. , Richards, Carl , Schneider, John , Swackhamer, Deborah L.
Current Investigators: Niemi, Gerald J. , Axler, Richard , Bedford, Barbara L. , Brady, Valerie J. , Ciborowski, Jan , Hanowski, JoAnn M. , Host, George E. , Howe, Robert W. , Hrabik, Thomas , Johansen, Jeffrey R. , Johnson, Lucinda , Johnston, Carol A. , Kingston, John C. , Reavie, Euan D. , Regal, Ronald R. , Richards, Carl , Sgro, Gerald V. , Simcik, Matthew , Smith, Charles , Stoermer, Eugene F. , Swackhamer, Deborah L. , Zedler, Joy B.
Institution: University of Minnesota - Duluth , Center for Water and the Environment, Natural Resources Research Institute , Minnesota Sea Grant College Program , South Dakota State University , U.S. EPA Mid-Continent Ecology Division-Duluth , U.S. EPA, Region 5 , University of Minnesota - Twin Cities , University of Wisconsin - Green Bay
EPA Project Officer: Levinson, Barbara
Project Period: January 11, 2001 through January 31, 2005 (Extended to January 9, 2006)
Project Period Covered by this Report: January 11, 2004 through January 31, 2005
Project Amount: $6,000,000
RFA: Environmental Indicators in the Estuarine Environment Research Program (2000)
Research Category: Ecological Indicators/Assessment/Restoration
Description:
Objective:The overall objective of the Great Lakes Environmental Indicators Project is to determine which environmental indicators can be developed to efficiently, economically, and effectively measure and monitor the condition, integrity, and long-term sustainability of the coastal region.
The specific objectives of this research project are to:
- identify of environmental indicators that will be useful to define the condition, integrity, and change of the ecosystems within the coastal region;
- test these indicators with a rigorous combination of existing data and field data to link stressors of the coastal region with environmental responses;
- and recommend a suite of hierarchically structured indicators to guide managers toward informed management decisions.
The final product will provide information for managers to communicate with the public on the condition and integrity of the coastal region, to guide development of monitoring programs to measure change, to identify areas in need of restoration or conservation strategies, and to use as key indicators for input into modeling efforts to predict the future of the coastal region.
Progress Summary:The primary focus during Year 4 of the project has been to complete the processing of field samples, compile and analyze data, and prepare publications detailing these efforts. The bird and amphibian group sampled more than 600 sites in 2002 and 2003. The fish and macroinvertebrate group sampled 112 sites in 2002 and 2003. The diatom and water quality team has sampled 240 sites from 2001 to 2003. The wetland vegetation group has sampled 86 sites from 2001 to 2003. The contaminants group has sampled 22 sites across the Great Lakes basin. In addition, more than 40 sites were visited by each of four project components: fish and macroinvertebrates, wetland vegetation, bird and amphibian, and diatom groups. Most of the sites sampled by the contaminant group also were sampled by the remaining four groups.
The compilation of data for each subcomponent has been developed through central administration of the project to ensure data compatibility and ease of analysis among the study components. In addition, all study components have documented points of sampling using current geopositioning (GPS) instruments to ensure spatial integrity and allow visualization of sample sites and overlap. More than 12,000 GPS points have been recorded during field sampling within the coastal region of the Great Lakes.
This cooperative agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Research and Development includes regular conference calls and individual face-to-face meetings on an as-needed basis for each subcomponent. This generally has occurred on a monthly basis and more frequently during the field sampling period (April to September). EPA's Mid-Continent Ecology Division also coordinated its sampling of the Great Lakes to overlap with our study design. EPA's primary focus, however, was to examine nutrient gradients in the coastal region of the Great Lakes.
The investigators have given a total of more than 50 presentations this past year. In particular, Great Lakes Environmental Indicators (GLEI) investigators made presentations at four major national and international science meetings. These included meetings of the American Society of Limnology and Oceanography, International Association of Great Lakes Research, North American Benthological Society, and the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry. Principal Investigator (PI) Niemi, in collaboration with Dr. Hans Paerl of the Atlantic Coast Environmental Indicators Consortium ( University of North Carolina), was successful in having an Organized Oral Discussion accepted for the upcoming International Ecological Society and Ecological Society of America meeting in Montreal, Quebec, in August 2005. This was a highly competitive process. In addition, about 10 presentations were made to managers or the general public.
A major emphasis of current efforts is the preparation of peer-reviewed publications. To date, GLEI investigators have published or have in press 12 papers in peer-reviewed journals and 24 manuscripts are in preparation. Two of these papers (Niemi, et al., 2004a and Niemi, et al., 2004b) are among the most-cited papers in ecology. Seventeen graduate students have been involved in GLEI-associated research, and nine of these have successfully defended.
Each of the components has been adhering to and refining its quality assurance and quality control objectives. We have requested and have been granted a 1-year no-cost extension to the project to January 9, 2006. Budget targets for women- and minority-owned businesses also are being met.
During Year 4 of the project we focused on the data compilation, analysis, and summarization of the results to test the hypotheses of stress and response relationships. Field data have continued to verify many of the stress gradients (e.g., nutrients) that we had identified a priori with our experimental design. The details of these efforts are described under each subproject included in this report.
Among the major activities that we have been involved with during the past 6 months is the integration of data among the GLEI subprojects. We have been using a procedure known as hierarchical partitioning to identify the variance explained for several dependent variables (potential ecological indicators) by ecotype (e.g., habitat), lake (e.g., one of the five Great Lakes), ecoprovince (two in our region), stressors (a combination of land use, pollution, and human population density), and basinwide. We have been exploring this partitioning for each of the subcomponents from the perspective of amphibians, birds, diatoms, fish, insects, and wetland vegetation. We also have incorporated indicators at the species and compositional levels, as well as function-based indicators. These analyses are critical because they identify:
- the relative merit of using different types of ecological indicators;
- the scale upon which these indicators can be applied such as basinwide or lake-specific;
- and/or if indicators are related to stress and at what scale.
The preliminary analyses indicate that the lake as a dependent variable is important to consider when applying an indicator whereas ecotype has not been as important a variable as we would have expected.
An all-investigators Estuarine and Great Lakes Environmental Indicators Program meeting was hosted by the GLEI group from September 30 to October 2, 2004, in Duluth, Minnesota. An all-investigators meeting of the GLEI investigators was held in September 2004, and another meeting is planned for June 2-3, 2005, in Duluth.
Future Activities:We will:
- complete the compilation and synthesis of the data gathered;
- continue with the analysis of hierarchical partitioning and other integration analysis among the subcomponents;
- and prepare presentations and manuscripts for peer-reviewed publications.
GLEI investigators will be making presentations at several national/international science meetings during years of the project. These include meetings of the Ecological Society of America, the Estuarine Research Federation, International Association of Great Lakes Research, the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, and North American Benthological Society.
Journal Articles: 47 Displayed | Download in RIS Format
| Other center views: | All 335 publications | 56 publications in selected types | All 47 journal articles |
| Type | Citation | ||
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
Axler R, Henneck J, Kireta A, Sgro J, Kingston J. Surrogate water quality indicators for use in monitoring the Great Lakes coastal zone. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment (in preparation, 2004). |
R828675C001 (2003) |
not available |
|
|
Brazner JC, Danz NP, Niemi GJ, Regal RR, et al. Assessing the condition of Great Lakes coastal wetlands using multiple taxonomic groups: geographic and geomorphic influences. Ecological Applications (in preparation, 2005). |
R828675C001 (2004) |
not available |
|
|
Brazner JC, Danz NP, Niemi GJ, Regal RR, Trebitz AS, Howe RW, Hanowski JM, Johnson LB, Ciborowski JJH, Johnston CA, Reavie ED, Brady VJ, Sgro GV. Evaluation of geographic, geomorphic and human influences on Great Lakes wetland indicators: a multi-assemblage approach. Ecological Indicators 2007;7(3):610-635. |
R828675 (Final) |
|
|
|
Breneman DB, Hrabik T, Schuldt J, Johnson LB. Effects of landscape-scale stressors on size class distribution of Great Lakes nearshore fish communities. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (in preparation, 2005). |
R828675C003 (2004) |
not available |
|
|
Cade BS, Noon BR. A gentle introduction to quantile regression for ecologists. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 2003;1(8):412-420. |
R828675C003 (Final) |
not available |
|
|
Ciborowski JJH, Schuldt J, Johnson LB, Host GE, Richards C, Danz N, Hollenhorst T. Reference conditions and axes of environmental stress - developing, integrating, and evaluating indicators of environmental conditions at Great Lakes coastal margins. Ecological Applications (in preparation, 2004). |
R828675C003 (2003) |
not available |
|
|
Crane JL, Richards C, Breneman D, Lozano S, Schuldt JA. Evaluating methods for assessing sediment quality in a Great Lakes embayment. Aquatic Ecosystem Heath & Management 2005;8(3):323-349. |
R828675 (Final) |
not available |
|
|
Danz NP, Regal RR, Niemi GJ, Brady VJ, Hollenhorst T, Johnson LB, Host GE, Hanowski JM, Johnston CA, Brown T, et al. Environmentally stratified sampling design for the development of Great Lakes environmental indicators. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment 2005;102(1-3):41-65. |
R828675C001 (2003) R828675C001 (2004) R828675C001 (Final) R828675C002 (2003) |
not available |
|
|
Danz NP, Niemi GJ, Regal RR, Hollenhorst T, Johnson LB, Hanowski JM, Axler RP, Ciborowski JJH, Hrabik T, Brady VJ, Kelly JR, Morrice JA, Brazner JC, Howe RW, Johnston CA, Host GE. Integrated measures of anthropogenic stress in the U.S. Great Lakes Basin. Environmental Management 2007;39(5):631-647. |
R828675 (Final) |
|
|
|
Frieswyk CB, Johnston CA, Zedler JB. Measuring dominance among co-occurring plants. Ecological Applications (in revision, 2005). |
R828675C002 (2003) R828675C002 (2004) |
not available |
|
|
Frieswyk CB, Zedler JB. Vegetation change in Great Lakes coastal wetlands: deviation from the historical cycle. Journal of Great Lakes Research 2007;33(2):366-380. |
R828675C002 (Final) |
|
|
|
Grandmaison DD, Niemi GJ. Landscape influence on Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus) nest success in Great Lakes coastal wetlands. The Auk (submitted, 2005). |
R828675 (2004) |
not available |
|
|
Grigorovich IA, Kang M, Ciborowski JJH. Colonization of the Laurentian Great Lakes by the amphipod Gammarus tigrinus, a native of the North American Atlantic coast. Journal of Great Lakes Research 2005;31(3):333-342. |
R828675C003 (2004) R828675C003 (Final) |
not available |
|
|
Grigorovich IA, Mills EL, Richards CB, Breneman D, Ciborowski JJH. European valve snail Valvata piscinalis (Müller) in the Laurentian Great Lakes basin. Journal of Great Lakes Research 2005;31(2):135-143. |
R828675C003 (2004) R828675C003 (Final) R828777 (2003) |
|
|
|
Hanowski J, Danz N, Howe R, Niemi G, Regal R. Consideration of geography and wetland geomorphic type in the development of Great Lakes coastal wetland bird indicators. EcoHealth 2007;4(2):194-205. |
R828675 (Final) R828675C004 (2004) |
|
|
|
Hanowski J, et al. Species-specific sampling effectiveness of calling anuran surveys in Lake Superior wetlands. Copeia (in review, 2005). |
R828675C004 (2004) |
not available |
|
|
Host GE, Schuldt J, Ciborowski JJH, Johnson LB, Hollenhorst T, Richards C. Use of GIS and remotely sensed data for a priori identification of reference areas for Great Lakes coastal ecosystems. International Journal of Remote Sensing 2005;26(23):5325-5342. |
R828675C003 (Final) R828777 (2003) |
|
|
|
Howe RW, Regal RR, Niemi GJ, Danz NP, Hanowski JM. A probability-based indicator of ecological condition. Ecological Indicators 2007;7(4):793-806. |
R828675 (Final) |
|
|
|
Hrabik TR, Breneman DB, Johnson LB, Schuldt J, et al. Variability in the trophic structure and diversity of fish assemblages in Great Lakes wetlands: the influence of anthropogenic stressors and land use information. Journal of Great Lakes Research or Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (in preparation, 2005). |
R828675C003 (2004) |
not available |
|
|
Johnson LB, Schuldt JA, Brady V, Breneman D, et al. Comparison of fish communities in reference and non-reference coastal Great Lakes wetlands. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (in preparation, 2005). |
R828675C003 (2004) |
not available |
|
|
Johnson LB, Hollenhorst T, Host G, Richards C. Scale effects in mapping riparian zones. Landscape Ecology (in preparation, 2005). |
R828675C003 (2004) |
not available |
|
|
Johnston CA, Meysembourg P. Comparison of the Wisconsin and National Wetlands Inventories. Wetlands 2002;22(2):386-405. |
R828675C002 (2002) R828675C002 (2003) R828675C002 (Final) |
not available |
|
|
Johnston CA. Shrub species as indicators of wetland sedimentation. Wetlands 2003;23(4):911-920. |
R828675C002 (2003) |
not available |
|
|
Kercher SM, Frieswyk CB, Zedler JB. Effects of sampling teams and estimation methods on the assessment of plant cover. Journal of Vegetation Science 2003;14(6):899-906. |
R828675C002 (2004) R828675C002 (Final) R828010 (Final) |
not available |
|
|
Kercher SM, Frieswyk CB, Zedler JB. Quality control approaches reveal effects of sampling teams and estimation methods for assessing plant cover in temperate herbaceous wetlands. Journal of Vegetation Science. |
R828675C002 (2002) R828675C002 (2003) |
not available |
|
|
Niemi GJ, McDonald ME. Application of ecological indicators. Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics 2004;35:89-111. |
R828675 (2004) R828675C001 (Final) |
not available |
|
|
Niemi G, Wardrop D, Brooks R, Anderson S, Brady V, Paerl H , Rakocinski C, Brouwer M, Levinson B, McDonald M. Rationale for a new generation of ecological indicators for coastal waters. Environmental Health Perspectives 2004;112(9):979-986. |
R828675 (2004) R828675 (Final) R828677C001 (Final) R828684 (Final) R829458C003 (2003) R829458C008 (2003) R829458C008 (2004) |
not available |
|
|
Price SJ, Marks DR, Howe RW, Hanowski J, Niemi GJ. The importance of spatial scale for conservation and assessment of anuran populations in coastal wetlands of the western Great Lakes. Landscape Ecology 2005;20(4):441-454. |
R828675C004 (2003) R828675C004 (Final) |
not available |
|
|
Ramstack JM, Fritz SC, Engstrom DR, Heiskary SA. The application of a diatom-based transfer function to evaluate regional water–quality trends in Minnesota since 1970. Journal of Paleolimnology 2003;29:79-94. |
R828675C001 (Final) |
not available |
|
|
Reavie ED, Axler RP, Sgro GV, Danz NP, Kingston JC, Kireta AR, Brown TN, Hollenhorst TP, Ferguson MJ. Diatom-based weighted-averaging transfer functions for Great Lakes coastal water quality: relationships to watershed characteristics. Journal of Great Lakes Research 2006;32(2):321-347. |
R828675C001 (Final) |
not available |
|
|
Reavie E, Smol J. Diatom-environmental relationships in 64 alkaline southeastern Ontario (Canada) lakes: a diatom-based model for water quality reconstructions. Journal of Paleolimnology 2001;25(1):25-42. |
R828675C001 (Final) |
not available |
|
|
Ryves DB, McGowan S, Anderson NJ. Development and evaluation of a diatom-conductivity model from lakes in West Greenland. Freshwater Biology 2002;47:995-1014. |
R828675C001 (Final) |
not available |
|
|
Seegert G. The development, use, and misuse of biocriteria with and emphasis on index of biotic integrity. Environmental Science and Pollution Research 2001;3:51-58. |
R828675C001 (Final) |
not available |
|
|
Sgro GV, Ketterer ME, Johansen JR. Ecology and assessment of the benthic diatom communities of four Lake Erie estuaries using Lange-Bertalot tolerance values. Hydrobiologia 2006;561:239-249. |
R828675C001 (2004) R828675C001 (Final) |
not available |
|
|
Siver PA, Ricard R, Goodwin R, Giblin AE. Estimating historical in-lake alkalinity generation from sulfate reduction and its relationship to lake chemistry as inferred from algal microfossils. Journal of Paleolimnology 2003;29:179-197. |
R828675C001 (Final) |
not available |
|
|
Smith SB, Blouin MA, Mac MJ. Ecological comparisons of Lake Erie tributaries with elevated incidence of fish tumors. Journal of Great Lakes Research 1994;20:701-716. |
R828675C001 (Final) |
not available |
|
|
Stoermer EF, Wolin JA, Schelske CL. Paleolimnological comparison of the Laurentian Great Lakes based on diatoms. Limnology and Oceanography 1993; 38:1311-1316. |
R828675C001 (Final) |
not available |
|
|
Stoermer EF, Pappas JL. Atypical Tabularia in coastal Lake Erie. Diatom Research (in preparation, 2004). |
R828675C001 (2003) |
not available |
|
|
Stoermer EF, Pappas JL. Atypical Tabularia in coastal Lake Erie. Diatom Research (in preparation, 2005). |
R828675 (2004) |
not available |
|
|
Tibby J. Development of a diatom–based model for inferring total phosphorus in southeastern Australian water storages. Journal of Paleolimnology 2004;31:23-36. |
R828675C001 (Final) |
not available |
|
|
Trebitz A, Brazner J, Brady V. Turbidity tolerances of Great Lakes wetland fishes. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (in preparation, 2005). |
R828675 (2004) |
not available |
|
|
Tuchman ML, Theriot EC, Stoermer EF. Effects of low-level salinity concentrations on the growth of Cyclotella meneghiniana Kütz. Arch. Protistenk. 1984;128:318-326. |
R828675C001 (Final) |
not available |
|
|
Werner P, Smol JP. Diatom–environmental relationships and nutrient transfer functions from contrasting shallow and deep limestone lakes in Ontario, Canada. Hydrobiologia 2005;533:145-173. |
R828675C001 (Final) |
not available |
|
|
Wolter PT, Johnston CA, Niemi GJ. Mapping submerged aquatic vegetation in the U.S. Great Lakes using Quickbird satellite data. International Journal of Remote Sensing 2005;26(23):5255-5274. |
R828675C004 (Final) |
not available |
|
|
Yang J, Duthie HC. Regression and weighted averaging models relating surficial sedimentary diatom assemblages to water depth in Lake Ontario. Journal of Great Lakes Research 1995;21:84-94. |
R828675C001 (Final) |
not available |
|
|
Kang M, Ciborowski JJH, Johnson LB, Hrabik TR, Richards C, Schuldt J. The relationship between anthropogenic disturbance and the distribution of a nonindigenous species, Echinogammarus ischnus Stebbing, 1898 (Amphipoda: Gammaridae), at Great Lakes coastal margins. Biological Invasions (in preparation, 2004). |
R828675C003 (2003) |
not available |
|
|
Uzarski DG, Burton TM, Cooper MJ, Ingram JW, Timmermans STA. Fish habitat use within and across wetland classes in coastal wetlands of the five Great Lakes: development of a fish-based index of biotic integrity. Journal of Great Lakes Research 2005;31(Suppl. 1):171-187. |
R828675C003 (Final) |
not available |
coastal, disturbance, ecological indicators, Great Lakes, stress, water, landscapes, amphibians, birds, contaminants, diatoms, fish, insects, vegetation, wetlands, macrophytes, monitoring, toxics, nutrients, coastal wetlands, environmental indicators, water quality, aquatic ecosystem, pollutant loads, Great Lakes coastal zone,
,
Ecosystem Protection/Environmental Exposure & Risk, Water, Air, Geographic Area, Scientific Discipline, RFA, Ecosystem/Assessment/Indicators, climate change, Great Lakes, Nutrients, Ecological Risk Assessment, Ecological Indicators, Ecological Effects - Environmental Exposure & Risk, Ecosystem Protection, Ecology and Ecosystems, atmospheric pollutant loads, toxic environmental contaminants, water quality, aquatic ecosystem, human activities, hierarchically structured indicators, hydrological stability, ecological response, Global Climate Change, hydrologic models, ecosystem indicators, diatoms, wetland vegetation, nutrient stress, environmental stressor, environmental consequences, ecosystem impacts, aquatic ecosystems, climate variability, coastal environments, ecosystem assessment, coastal ecosystem, nutrient transport, hydrological, ecological assessment, estuarine ecosystems, nutrient supply, ecosystem stress, ecological condition
Relevant Websites:
A Manager's Guide to Indicator Selection (PDF) (8 pp., 3.4MB)
New Index of Environmental Condition for Coastal
Watersheds in the Great Lakes Basin (PDF) (2 pp., 281KB)
http://glei.nrri.umn.edu
http://es.epa.gov/ncer/publications/factsheets/gleifinal05.pdf (PDF) (2 pp, 281K, about PDF)
Progress and Final Reports:
2001 Progress Report
Original Abstract
Final Report
Subprojects under this Center:
(EPA does not fund or establish subprojects; EPA awards and manages the overall grant for this center).
R828675C001 Great Lakes Diatom and Water Quality Indicators
R828675C002 Vegetative Indicators of Condition, Integrity, and Sustainability of Great Lakes Coastal Wetlands
R828675C003 Testing Indicators of Coastal Ecosystem Integrity Using Fish and Macroinvertebrates
R828675C004 Development and Assessment of Environmental Indicators Based on Birds and Amphibians in the Great Lakes Basin
R828675C005 Development and Evaluation of Chemical Indicators for Monitoring Ecological Risk