Ecological Monitoring for Assessing the State of the Nearshore and Open Waters of the Great Lakes

The Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement stipulates that the Governments of Canada and the United States are responsible for restoring and maintaining the chemical, physical and biological integrity of the waters of the Great Lakes Basin Ecosystem. Due to varying mandates and areas of expertise, monitoring to assess progress towards this objective is conducted by a multitude of Canadian and U.S. federal and provincial/state agencies, in cooperation with academia and regional authorities. This paper highlights selected long-term monitoring programs and discusses a number of documented ecological changes that indicate the present state of the open and nearshore waters of the Great Lakes.     

Statistical zonation of sediment samples using ratio matching and cluster analysis

A zonation technique for sediment samples based upon contaminant ratios of a series of samples is described. The technique is based on the fact that sediment samples of common origin will tend to have similar ratios of concentrations of trace pollutants such as heavy metals, PCBs, etc., despite dilution by variable amounts of inert materials such as silica or calcite. Comparison of these ratios between individual samples yields a matrix of similarity coefficients, which are then analyzed by a hierarchical agglomerative cluster analysis procedure. Sediment samples of similar origin will tend to group together in a single cluster, whereas samples influence by unique factors such as transport patterns or proximity to point source discharges will appear as separate individual clusters. The results of application of this methodology to Great Lakes samples from Hamilton Harbour and Port Hope are presented.     

Development of the Coastal Intensive Site Network (CISNET)

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) have formed a partnership to establish pilot sites for the development of a network known as the Coastal Intensive Site Network (CISNet). CISNet is composed of intensive, long-term monitoring and research sites around the U.S. marine and Great Lakes coasts. In this partnership, EPA and NOAA are funding research and monitoring programs at pilot sites that utilize ecological indicators and investigate the ecological effects of environmental stressors. NASA is funding research aimed at developing a remote sensing capability that will augment or enhance in situresearch and monitoring programs selected by EPA and NOAA. CISNet has three objectives: 1) to develop a sound scientific basis for understanding ecological responses to anthropogenic stresses in coastal environments, including the interaction of exposure, environment/climate, and biological/ecological factors in the response, and the spatial and temporal nature of these interactions, 2) to demonstrate the value of developing data from selected sites intensively monitored to examine the relationships between changes in environmental stressors, including anthropogenic and natural stresses, and ecological response, and 3) to provide intensively monitored sites for development and evaluation of indicators of change in coastal systems.     

Air monitoring of persistent organic pollutants in the Great Lakes: IADN vs. AEOLOS

When designing a monitoring campaign, one has to consider many factors in the decision to perform a long-term synoptic monitoring program or a short-term intensive study. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages. This paper compares and contrasts the information obtained from two studies conducted on the Laurentian Great Lakes. One, the Integrated Atmospheric Deposition Network (IADN), is a long-term synoptic monitoring study and the other, the Atmospheric Exchange Over Lakes and Oceans (AEOLOS), was a short-term intensive study. The advantages of long-term synoptic monitoring programs are providing greater spatial information, the relative influence of long and short-range transport on the regional background, gross loadings representative of the majority of each lake and long-term temporal trends. Short-term intensive studies provide more information on the processes governing sources, transport and deposition, such as the urban/industrial influence on adjacent large water bodies, specific sources to an urban/industrial area and short-term fluctuations in concentrations due to meteorology, source strength and photochemical reactions. Using information provided by both the IADN and AEOLOS studies, areas of urban influence are predicted for each of the five Great Lakes.     

The Great Lakes, an Ecosystem Rehabilitated, But Still Under Threat

Since 1972, the Parties (United States and Canada, 1987) to the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement have been working collaboratively to achieve the purpose of the Agreement “to restore and maintain the chemical, physical and biological integrity of the waters of the Great Lakes Basin Ecosystem”. Billions of dollars and countless person – hours have been expended towards this end, but have the Parties, and their numerous collaborators at the state, provincial, and municipal levels, along with industry and citizen activists achieved meaningful results? This paper will examine the information provided through various monitoring programs and will assess the success of the Parties' programs, and will also discuss the continuing threats to achieving the purpose of the Agreement.     

The Development and Implementation of Indicators of Ecosystem Health in the Great Lakes Basin

This paper describes a process for the selection of a suite of ecosystem health indicators for the Great Lakes, as called for in the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. The paper also presents some preliminary data on status and trends in ecosystem components based on those indicators. The indicator selection process was carried out by over 150 scientists and managers from both Canada and the USA, and involved the presentation of the proposed indicators at the State of the Lakes Ecosystem Conferences (SOLECs). An open period for comment followed the conferences where input from scientists involved in Great Lakes programs was received. The suite of indicators will, over time, present information in an understandable format that will allow for more informed management decisions.     

Inferences about point source loadings from upstream/downstream river monitoring data

Areas of Concern such as the Niagara and Detroit Rivers contain a myriad of point and non-point sources. These are difficult and expensive to monitor and often present unique analytical problems and so are subject to analytical error. The Niagara River Toxics Committee (NRTC) and the Upper Great Lakes Connecting Channels Study Modeling Committee designed programs to indirectly monitor these sources by upstream/downstream sampling at the head and mouth of the rivers. These two studies are compared and the data analysis problems that were encountered are discussed. Upstream/downstream samples were paired to obtain differential loadings wherever possible, but when some results were reported as below the detection limit, a maximum likelihood estimate was used. The resulting differential loading, adjusted for non-point sources, is the total point source load to the river minus any losses due to volatilization, settling or degradation.     

Designing the Environmental Results Workshop: Historical Context, Causality and Candidate Species

During the past thirty years, researchers have been documenting the concentrations and effects of persistent toxic substances, such as DDT, PCBs, dioxins and furans, in populations of Great Lakes organisms. In designing the International Joint Commission's Workshop on Environmental Results, the organizers on the Great Lakes Science Advisory Board started from the premise that the selection of indicator organisms for long-term trend analysis requires that the causal relationships between the observed effects and the putative cause should be demonstrated and believed. However, the causal relationships that have been documented have generally been met with skepticism by fellow scientists and by regulatory officials resulting in no agreement on valid indicator organisms. To overcome this skepticism, wildlife, fisheries and human health researchers have adapted the epidemiological criteria used by medical and veterinary researchers for synthesizing the causal evidence. Brief reviews of several candidate species and of their suitability as long term monitors are presented, and the adequacy of monitoring programs for determining trends in the incidence of chemically-induced effects is assessed.     

Spatial Patterns and Rankings of Contaminant Concentrations in Herring Gull Eggs from 15 Sites in the Great Lakes and Connecting Channels, 1998–2002

Mean values of eight contaminants in Herring Gull (Larus argentatus) eggs were calculated for 15 Great Lakes sites for the 5 year period 1998–2002. The sites were ranked according to the concentrations of each of seven compounds relative to fish flesh criteria for the protection of piscivorous wildlife, and a single overall rank of contamination was calculated for each site. Based on this weighted ranking scheme, we found that sum PCBs, dioxin and DDE contributed the most (60.2, 30.5% and 8.5%, respectively) to the overall rankings. The weighted ranking scheme showed that eggs from Channel-Shelter Island (Saginaw Bay, Lake Huron), Strachan Island (St. Lawrence River) and Gull Island (northern Lake Michigan) ranked as the three most contaminated sites, while Agawa Rocks (eastern Lake Superior), Chantry Island (southern Lake Huron) and Port Colborne (eastern Lake Erie) ranked as the three least contaminated sites. Two of the three most contaminated sites are Areas of Concern; none of the three least contaminated sites are Areas of Concern.     

Temporal and Spatial Trends in Chlorinated Hydrocarbon Concentrations of Mink in Canadian Lakes Erie and St. Clair

Mink (Mustela vison) carcasses were collected from local commercial trappers from fall 1998 to spring 2003 from tributaries and marshes within 4.8km from the shores of Lakes Erie and St. Clair, including the Wheatley Harbour and St. Clair River Areas of Concern (AOCs), as well as from inland sites (8 to 40km from shore). Liver concentrations, on a lipid weight basis, of chlorinated hydrocarbons were measured and compared among sites and to tissue concentrations of mink from two previous collections from similar sites over the past 25 years. Mink from the western Lake Erie sites, which included the Wheatley Harbour AOC, had significantly higher concentrations of sum PCBs and PCB Aroclors than those from the St. Clair corridor or inland sites, with concentrations from the rest of Lake Erie being intermediate. Dieldrin concentrations were also significantly higher in western Lake Erie than many other sites, and those of oxychlordane and mirex also tended to be higher (0.05 < p < 0.1). There were no differences in contaminant concentrations between the St. Clair River AOC and the downstream non-AOC Lake St. Clair site, with the exception of slightly higher levels of octachlorostyrene (OCS). Concentrations of PCBs and other chlorinated hydrocarbons in mink showed a general decrease over the past two decades. In contrast, PCBs and some organochlorine pesticides tended to increase, significantly so with oxychlordane, in western Lake Erie mink over the same time period. DDE declined at all sites. Currently, mink liver PCB concentrations are within the range associated with reproductive impairment, as determined from captive mink studies, in 11.7% of all animals collected from the Lakes Erie and St. Clair basin overall, but in almost 40% of individuals from western Lake Erie.     

Bi-national assessment of the Great Lakes: SOLEC partnerships

Many administrative jurisdictions have authority over parts of the Great Lakes, sometimes with competing purposes as well as governance at differing scales of time and space. As demand increases for high quality information that is relevant to environmental managers, environmental and natural resource agencies with limited budgets must look to interdisciplinary, collaborative approaches for the collection, analysis and reporting of data. The State of the Lakes Ecosystem Conferences (SOLEC) were begun in 1994 in response to reporting requirements of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement between Canada and the U.S. The biennial conferences provide independent, science-based reporting on the state of health of the Great Lakes ecosystem components. A suite of indicators necessary and sufficient to assess Great Lakes ecosystem status was introduced in 1998, and assessments based on a subset of the indicators were presented in 2000. Because SOLEC is a multi-agency, multi-jurisdictional reporting venue, the SOLEC indicators require acceptance by a broad spectrum of stakeholders in the Great Lakes basin. The SOLEC indicators list is expected to provide the basis for government agencies and other organizations to collaborate more effectively and to allocate resources to data collection, evaluation and reporting on the state of the Great Lakes basin ecosystem.     

Statistical needs in national water quality monitoring programs

The concept that a few well chosen, strategically placed, water quality stations can provide valuable scientific information to water managers is common to many countries. Historically within Canada, water quality regional networks (Great Lakes network, Prairie Provinces Water Board network, Long Range Transport of Airborne Pollutants network, etc.) have been successfully operating for many years. This paper will describe the difficulties associated with developing a national water quality network for a country the size of Canada. In particular, it will describe some of the statistical tools presently being used in regional networks which are suitable for a national network, and discuss the need to develop new statistical tools for environmental monitoring in the 1990's.     

A spatial hierarchical framework for the co-management of ecosystems in Canada and the United States for the upper Great Lakes region

Over the past three decades, considerable effort has been invested in the development of complex and comprehensive ecosystem classifications and inventories in many parts of North America. Paralleling this has been an evolution in those hierarchical frameworks guiding the development and application of classifications. However, resource management agencies continue to grapple with the dilemma of applying multiple classification and inventory templates over large jurisdictions, especially as they attempt to address ecosystem management objectives. Given that Canada and the United States share ecosystems and that commitments have been made by all levels of government to make progress towards ecosystem-based approaches to management, there is a need to provide the proper tools. Comprehensive goals will not be achieved without collaboration and cooperation.This paper outlines the range of ecosystem classification approaches that exist in the Upper Great Lakes region. Canadian and American national hierarchical frameworks are briefly examined. Specific information needs and tasks are outlined which must be followed, independent of national boundaries, for the successful integration of planning and monitoring programs for large regional ecosystems.A general model is proposed for the development and application of an integrated, multi-scale and bi-national ecosystem classification, inventory and information system. This approach would facilitate data sharing and communication across jurisdictional boundaries.     

Environmental Monitoring and Assessment of a Great River Ecosystem: The Upper Missouri River Pilot

Most Great River ecosystems (GREs) are extensively modified and are not receiving adequate protection to prevent further habitat degradation and loss of biotic integrity. In the United States, ecological monitoring and assessment of GREs has lagged behind streams and estuaries, and the management of GREs is hampered by the lack of unbiased data at appropriate spatial scales. Properties of GREs that make them challenging to monitor and assess include difficult sample logistics and high habitat diversity. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (EMAP) has developed a comprehensive, regional-scale, survey-based monitoring approach to assessment of streams and estuaries, but has not yet conducted research on applying these tools to GRE monitoring. In this paper we present an overview of an EMAP research project on the Upper Missouri River (UMR). We summarize the assessment objectives for the study, the design for selecting sample locations, the indicators measured at these sites and the tools used to analyze data. We present an example of the type of statements that can be made with EMAP monitoring data. With modification, the set of methodologies developed by EMAP may be well suited for assessment of GREs in general.     

Evaluation of Clostridium perfringens as a tracer of sewage contamination in sediments by two enumeration methods

A traditional method of enumerating Clostridium perfringens using membrane filtration (MF) as an indicator of fecal contamination was compared to recently developed rapid method using Rapid Fung Double Tube (RFDT) in an evaluation to characterize the extent of sewage contamination in sediments of the Great Lakes. Evaluation of these two methods included determining C. perfringens concentrations and recovery efficiencies from sewage, sewage-spiked sediments, and water (surface and bottom) and sediment samples collected from two Great Lakes. The RFDT method proved to be a superior method for identifying C. perfringens in lake sediments compared to MF, as it had higher recovery efficiency and was more rapid, reliable, simple, and effective. This study provides biological evidence of the long-term deposition and movement of sewage particulates in the Great Lakes environment and demonstrates the potential usefulness of C. perfringens as a tracer for sewage contamination using a reliable enumeration method.     

Monitoring water quality in Sydney Harbour using blue mussels during remediation of the Sydney Tar Ponds,Nova Scotia,Canada

Using mussels as monitoring tools we measured water quality in Sydney Harbour during a large scale, multi-year remediation project of the Sydney Tar Ponds (STPs); one of Canada's most contaminated sites. Chemical contaminants were measured in blue mussels (Mytilus edulis) in Sydney Harbour, which were used as monitoring tools to assess the spatio-temporal distribution of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs); polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs); metals (As, Cd, Cu, Hg, Pb, Zn) and lipid content during baseline and 3 years of remediation. The overall spatio-temporal distribution of chemicals in mussels was also compared to contaminants in other marine indicators (e.g., sediment, water and crab tissue). Measured metal concentrations in mussels showed some minor temporal variability (4 years), but these did not appear to be directly related to remediation activities, with the highest concentrations of As, Hg and Zn measured at reference stations. Most measured contaminants showed stable or potentially decreasing concentrations during the study, except Pb and Zn. Individual PAH compounds were mostly undetected during baseline and remediation, except for fluoranthene and pyrene. Concentrations of fluoranthene in mussels and deep water samples were moderately related. Generally, PCBs were undetected (<0.05 μg g^?1), except during year 2 remediation at some near-field stations. Contaminants measured during this study were at much lower concentrations than previously reported in other studies of mussels in Sydney Harbour and eastern Canada. This is likely due to the ongoing natural recovery of Sydney Harbour and to a lesser extent because of the environmental mitigation protection measures implemented during remediation activities at the STPs. The lack of detection of most individual PAHs and PCBs, plus relatively low bio-accumulation of metals observed during baseline and remediation attest to the effectiveness of using mussels as monitoring tools for environmental quality.     

基于SADA的最小(大)化超标区布点方法在环境监测中的应用

二次布点是在已有监测数据基础上增加监测点进行监测,决策者常常需要通过结合二次布点和原有监测数据,使插值估算的浓度超标区域最大化或最小化。较详细地介绍了SADA软件最大(小)化超标区域布点法,结合沈阳市区PM10超标区域研究为实例,验证了该方法的显著效果并与随即布点法进行了分析比较。     

Spatial and Temporal Trends in Organochlorine Contamination and Bill Deformities in Double-Crested Cormorants (Phalacrocorax Auritus) from the Canadian Great Lakes

The levels of organochlorine contaminants (OCs) in the eggs of double-crested cormorants (Phalacrocorax auritus) from the Canadian Great Lakes, Lake Nipigon and Lake-of-the-Woods were monitored between 1970 and 1995. PCBs and p,p-DDE were present at the highest concentrations. Significant declines in OC concentrations on the Great Lakes were observed over this period for Lake Ontario, Lake Superior, Georgian Bay and North Channel but not Lake Erie where levels remained relatively stable. In the early 1970s, the greatest OC levels were generally observed in cormorant eggs from nesting sites in Georgian Bay and North Channel of Lake Huron. Between 1984 and 1995 mirex and PCB levels were consistently highest in samples from Lakes Ontario and Erie, respectively. Similar levels of PCDDs and PCDFs were observed from all regions of the Canadian Great Lakes in 1989. In general, OC levels in cormorant eggs between 1984-95 were ranked as follows: Lake Erie>Lake Ontario Lake Superior>Lake Huron. In 1995, eggshell thickness in Canadian Great Lakes cormorants, ranged from 0.423 to 0.440 mm and was on average only 2.3% thinner than pre-DDT era values. Between 1988 and 1996, 31 cormorant chicks with bill defects were observed at 16 different colonies (21% of all colonies surveyed) in Lakes Ontario and Superior, Georgian Bay and North Channel, and the main body of Lake Huron. No bill deformities were observed at reference sites in northwestern Ontario (Lake Nipigon and Lake-of-the-Woods). For the period 1988-96, the prevalence of bill defects in cormorant chicks (0.0 to 2.8/10,000 chicks) did not differ significantly (P > 0.05) among most regions in the Canadian Great Lakes. Georgian Bay was the only region to show a significant decrease in the prevalence of bill defects between the periods 1979-87 and 1988-95.     

Reptiles and Amphibians: Shy and Sensitive Vertebrates of the Great Lakes Basin and St. Lawrence River

Bioaccumulation of environmental contaminants has been documented in amphibians and reptiles inhabiting the Great Lakes, St. Lawrence River and elsewhere. The effects of pollutants on the physiology and reproduction of amphibians and reptiles has also been reported but this research has largely been restricted to laboratory studies. Much less work has been conducted to quantify the effects of toxic chemical exposures on these cryptic animals in the wild. In the Great Lakes basin and St. Lawrence River, this work has only been performed in detail since 1981 although some samples collected in 1974 indicated a high level of contamination. Results in the 1990s on aquatic salamanders, frogs and turtles indicate that adults and embryos are currently experiencing toxic effects and, in some species and locations, there are indications that population declines are influenced by environmental pollution exposure. In this review, we describe the existing literature on contaminant levels and effects in reptiles and amphibians of the St. Lawrence River and Great Lakes basin.     

Great Lakes monitoring results--comparison of probability based and deterministic sampling grids

The Great Lakes may be viewed as a coastal environment, affected by the same meteorological and physical forces as the coastal ocean. The U.S. EPA, Great Lakes National Program Office (GLNPO) has monitored the open waters of the lakes, annually, since 1983. As part of the U.S. EPA Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (EMAP), a pilot study was performed in Lake Michigan to compare the existing GLNPO deterministic sampling grid with the EMAP probabilistic grid. Results of chemical analyses of trophic status indicators (total phosphorus and chlorophyll a) as well as nutrients and conventional limnological measurements, from spring and summer surveys in 1992 indicate little difference between the grids in the offshore region of the lake. The few statistically significant differences may be due to station distribution throughout the lake, or simple chance. This might be expected due to the well mixed nature of the open waters of Lake Michigan. The detection of a long-term trend for total phosphorus in Lake Michigan benefits from an annual program: viewing cumulative frequency distributions based on a four year EMAP interval does not convey information on the decrease in phosphorus in the lake. If the EMAP sampling grid were to be used in the Great Lakes, pilots in each of the lakes would be necessary for utilization of the existing long-term record as a basis for trend detection.