The role of sample surveys for monitoring the condition of the nation's lakes

In order to meet a growing need to determine the condition of the nation's ecosystems and how their condition is changing, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) developed EMAP, the Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program. A common survey design serves as the foundation on which to base monitoring of status and trends among diverse ecosystem types. In this paper, we describe the need for a statistically based survey design, briefly summarize the basic EMAP design, describe how that design is tailored for the selection of a probability sample of lakes on which to make measurements of lake condition, and illustrate the process for selecting a sample of lakes in the northeastern United States. Finally, we illustrate how measurements taken on the sample of lakes can be summarized, with known uncertainty, to describe the condition of a population of lakes.The U.S. Government right to retain a non-exclusive, royalty free licence in and to any copyright is acknowledged.     

A process for selecting indicators for monitoring conditions of rangeland health

This paper reports on a process for selecting a suite of indicators that, in combination, can be useful in assessing the ecological conditions of rangelands. Conceptual models that depict the structural and functional properties of ecological processes were used to show the linkages between ecological components and their importance in assessing the status and trends of ecological resources on a regional scale. Selection criteria were developed so that relationships could be assessed at different spatial scales using ground and aerial measurements. Parameters including responsiveness and sensitivity to change, quality assurance and control, temporal and spatial variability, cost-effectiveness and statistical design played an important role in determining how indicators were selected. A total of ten indicator categories were selected by a committee of scientists for evaluation in the program. A subset that included soil properties, vegetation composition and abundance, and spectral properties was selected for evaluation in a pilot test conducted in 1992 in the Colorado Plateau region of the southwestern United States. This work is part of a major effort being undertaken by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and its collaborators to assess the condition of rangelands (primarily comprised of arid, semi-arid and dry subhumid ecosystems) along with seven other ecosystem groups (forests, agricultural lands, wetlands, surface waters, landscapes, estuaries and Great Lakes) as part of a national Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (EMAP). The indicator selection process reported upon was developed to support EMAP's goal of providing long-term, policy-relevant research focusing on evaluating the ecological condition (or health) of regional and national resources.     

Development and implementation of coral reef biocriteria in U.S. jurisdictions

Coral reefs worldwide are declining at an alarming rate and are under continuous threat from both natural and anthropogenic environmental stressors. Warmer sea temperatures attributed to global climate change and numerous human activities at local scales place these valuable ecosystems at risk. Reefs provide numerous services, including shoreline protection, fishing, tourism and biological diversity, which are lost through physical damage, overfishing, and pollution. Pollution can be controlled under provisions of the Clean Water Act, but these options have not been fully employed to protect coral reefs. No U.S. jurisdiction has implemented coral reef biocriteria, which are narrative or quantitative water quality standards based on the condition of a biological resource or assemblage. The President’s Ocean Action Plan directs the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to develop biological assessment methods and biological criteria for evaluating and maintaining the health of coral reef ecosystems. EPA has formed the Coral Reef Biocriteria Working Group (CRBWG) to foster development of coral reef biocriteria through focused research, evaluation and communication among Agency partners and U.S. jurisdictions. Ongoing CRBWG activities include development and evaluation of a rapid bioassessment protocol for application in biocriteria programs; development of a survey design and monitoring strategy for the U.S. Virgin Islands; comprehensive reviews of biocriteria approaches proposed by states and territories; and assembly of data from a variety of monitoring programs for additional metrics. Guidance documents are being prepared to assist U.S. jurisdictions in reaching protective and defensible biocriteria.     

Quality assurance and quality control data validation procedures used for the Love Canal and Dallas lead soil monitoring programs

Public awareness of soils contamination has increased in recent years due in part to the notoriety associated with the indiscriminate release, packaging, transporting and disposal of hazardous materials. In 1980, and again in 1982, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was responsible for designing, implementing and conducting environmental monitoring programs at Love Canal in Niagara Falls, New York, and in Dallas, Texas, that dealt with suspected contaminated soils. Both of these monitoring programs were conducted over a relatively short time with the collection and analysis of over 4000 soil samples. The methods employed by the Environmental Protection Agency for providing soil data that was scientifically valid and of defensible quality for each of these monitoring programs are presented. Also, methods for identifying data bias, its precision and its uncertainty are identified.     

Contemplating the Assessment of Great River Ecosystems

The science and practice of assessing the status and trends of ecological conditions in great rivers have not kept pace with perturbation wrought on these systems. Participants at a symposium sponsored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) and the Council of State Governments concluded that useful and efficient assessments of great river ecosystems require thoughtful alignment of sampling designs, spatial and temporal scales, indicators, management needs, and ecosystem characteristics. Site-specific physical, chemical, and biological data long accumulated by monitoring programs have value but fail to provide the integrated system-wide perspective required for adaptive management and the Clean Water Act. Use of existing data may be limited by methodological incompatibilities, access difficulties, and the exclusive applicability of data to specific habitats or sites. The transition from site-specific to system-wide assessments benefits from research being done by USEPA's Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (EMAP) and other programs that use probability surveys and biological indicators. Indicators of various taxa (in particular fish, algae, and benthic invertebrates) have been successfully developed for great rivers. However, optimizing the information these ecological indicators convey to managers and the public is the subject of ongoing research.     

Using Science to Assess Environmental Vulnerabilities

Beginning in 1995, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA), Office of Research and Development has focused much of its ecological research in the Mid-Atlantic as part of the Mid-Atlantic Integrated Assessment (MAIA). The goal of MAIA is to improve the assessability of scientific information in environmental decision-making. Following the Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (EMAP) whose goal is to guide monitoring that effectively reflects current ecosystem condition and trends, MAIA's second, current, phase of research under the Regional Vulnerability Assessment (ReVA) program is designed to target risk management activities using available data and models. The papers presented here are from a conference held in May 2003 that presented results of research in this second phase of MAIA. The conference was organized into the following topics: 1. Assessing Current Impacts and Vulnerabilities 2. Forecasting Environmental Condition and Vulnerabilities 3. Developing Management Strategies to Optimize the Future, and 4. Assessing and Responding to Environmental Vulnerability.     

An Interactive, Spatial Inventory of Environmental Data in the Mid-Atlantic Region

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is working with federal, state, local, and non-governmental partners to produce an interactive, spatial inventory of environmental data in the mid-Atlantic region. The inventory will include maps of sampling locations, lists of measurements, and design information for hundreds of research sites and monitoring programs. It will also feature user-defined queries, resulting in customized maps that satisfy search criteria. (For example, "Display the probability-based surveys that measure dry deposition and nutrient availability in soils"). The inventory will be used in an interagency pilot study, instigated by the National Science and Technology Council's Committee on the Environment and Natural Resources, to integrate environmental monitoring and research activities. The inventory will also provide information for a regional ecological assessment led by EPA Region 3 and the Office of Research and Development. In addition, an interagency consortium will use the inventory to identify suitable field data for assessing the accuracy of satellite imagery. In each of these three applications, the inventory will be tested and evaluated as a potential prototype for completing additional regions of the U.S. Maintained as an Oracle database, the inventory is accessible on the internet at http://www.epa.gov/monitor/. Currently, ten inventory records are on-line for demonstration. The complete federal inventory of approximately 180 records will be accessible on-line by October, 1997; approximately 200 state, local and non-governmental records are scheduled for on-line access by April, 1998.     

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.     

Assessing soil lead contamination in Dallas Texas

During the summer of 1982, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency conducted a comprehensive multimedia environmental monitoring program in the vicinity of two secondary lead smelters and at one reference site in Dallas, Texas. This monitoring program included a major soils investigation with the collection and analysis of over 2700 soil samples. In addition, approximately 1000 blood and 840 house dust samples were collected and analyzed for their lead content.Utilizing geostatistics and the data obtained from a portion of the soil samples, isopleths of constant soil lead concentrations within each of the three monitoring sites were identified. Presented are the soil monitoring strategy and the geostatistical techniques selected for identifying the distributions of soil lead patterns at each of the three monitoring sites. In addition, the soil sampling and analytical methods used, the sample handling and preparation procedures, and the geostatistical results obtained are identified.     

Beyond data management: how ecoinformatics can benefit environmental monitoring programs

We review ways in which the new discipline of ecoinformatics is changing how environmental monitoring data are managed, synthesized, and analyzed. Rapid improvements in information technology and strong interest in biodiversity and sustainable ecosystems are driving a vigorous phase of development in ecological databases. Emerging data standards and protocols enable these data to be shared in ways that have previously been difficult. We use the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s National Coastal Assessment (NCA) as an example. The NCA has collected biological, chemical, and physical data from thousands of stations around the U.S. coasts since 1990. NCA data that were collected primarily to assess the ecological condition of the U.S. coasts can be used in innovative ways, such as biogeographical studies to analyze species invasions. NCA application of ecoinformatics tools leads to new possibilities for integrating the hundreds of thousands of NCA species records with other databases to address broad-scale and long-term questions such as environmental impacts, global climate change, and species invasions.     

Spatial assessment of water quality parameters in Jhelum city (Pakistan)

In this study, we assess the drinking water quality of Jhelum city. Two hundred and ninety-two drinking water samples were randomly collected in the study area. These samples were chemically analyzed for three key toxic (in excess) elements such as pH, total dissolved solids (TDS), and calcium. Geostatistical techniques such as variogram and kriging were used to investigate the spatial variations of these minerals across the city. The spatial structure for each element was found to be anisotropic, and thus, anisotropic variograms were used. The kriging predictions revealed significant concentrations of the above-stated elements at some locations in the study area. While comparing with the World Health Organization, United States Environmental Protection Agency, and Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency standards, the water samples were found to be unsatisfactory for drinking. We conclude that the drinking water in this region is of poor quality and needs proper treatment to make it palatable.     

Development and Validation of Ecological Indicators: an ORD Approach

The U. S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Research and Development (ORD) is continuing research efforts initiated by the Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program on ecological indicator development. An ORD Ecological Indicators Working Group has been formed with activities in three primary areas. (1) Guidelines and procedures are being developed to evaluate indicators for use in monitoring programs. Indicators will be evaluated on conceptual soundness, implementation, response variability, and interpretation/utility. The evaluation guidelines will be applied in peer review to endorse technically acceptable indicators and will provide research direction for improvements. (2) An ORD strategy for research in ecological indicators is being developed by the Working Group in collaboration with Division research scientists. The strategy will serve to prioritize research based on the greatest importance and uncertainty and identify goals for indicator development in both intramural and extramural programs. The research strategy includes application of the evaluation guidelines to identify relevant research questions. (3) Interactions with indicator client and user groups (states, program offices and regions) are actively being sought for successful development and implementation of indicators. Client indicator priorities are formally included in the research strategy and user feedback on indicators will help to identify relevant research questions. Consultations with users will serve to assist in evaluating, implementing, and interpreting indicators in monitoring programs.     

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.     

An EPA program for monitoring ecological status and trends

Despite hundreds of millions of dollars spent annually in the United States on environmental monitoring, policy and decision makers seldom have ready access to monitoring data to aid in prioritizing reasearch and assessment efforts or to assess the extent to which current policies are meeting the desired objectives. EPA is currently conducting research to evaluate options for establishing an integrated, cooperative monitoring program, with participation by federal, state, and private entities, that could result in annual statistical reports and interpretive summaries on the status and trends in indicators of adverse disturbance and corresponding health of the nation's ecosystem on the regional and national scale.The research described in this article has not been subjected to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency review and therefore does not necessarily reflect the views of the Agency, and no official endorsement should be inferred.     

Development and Applications of Microbial Ecogenomic Indicators for Monitoring Water Quality: Report of a Workshop Assessing the State of the Science, Research Needs and Future Directions

This article brings forth recommendations from a workshop sponsored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Science to Achieve Results (STAR) and Environmental Monitoring and Assessment (EMAP) Programs and by the Council of State Governments, held during May 2002 in Kansas City, Kansas. The workshop assembled microbial ecologists and environmental scientists to determine what research and science is needed to bring existing molecular biological approaches and newer technologies arising from microbial genomic research into environmental monitoring and water quality assessments. Development of genomics and proteomics technologies for environmental science is a very new area having potential to improve environmental water quality assessments. The workshop participants noted that microbial ecologists are already using molecular biological methods well suited for monitoring and water quality assessments and anticipate that genomics-enabled technologies could be made available for monitoring within a decade. Recommendations arising from the workshop include needs for (i) identification of informative microbial gene sequences, (ii) improved understandings of linkages between indicator taxa, gene expression and environmental condition, (iii) technological advancements towards field application, and (iv) development of the appropriate databases. Contribution no. 1217 from the NHEERL Gulf Ecology Division. All authors contributed equally to this publication.     

Evaluating Ecological Indicators: Lakes In The Northeastern United States

We use data from a survey of several hundred lakes in the northeastern United States by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to illustrate an approach to identifying promising indicators of lake condition. We construct a hypothetical gold standard of water quality from the first principal component of 16 chemical variables measured in the lakes, and examine its associations with 71 candidate indicators based on measurements of human activity, birds, fish and zooplankton in the lakes or their watersheds. Nonparametric summaries of these associations – based on rank correlations and receiver-operating-characteristic curves – suggest that variables summarizing the extent of human disturbance are generally the strongest indicators. To the extent that our water-quality variable is a useful proxy for ecological condition, our results suggest that easily-obtained measures of human activity are at least as predictive as many of the harder-to-measure biological indicators that have been proposed.     

Designing a Spatially Balanced, Randomized Site Selection Process for Regional Stream Surveys: The EMAP Mid-Atlantic Pilot Study

In 1993, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as part of the Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (EMAP), initiated a sample survey of streams in the mid-Atlantic. A major objective of the survey was to quantify ecological condition in wadeable streams across the region. To accomplish this goal, we selected 615 stream sites using a randomized sampling design with some restrictions. The design utilized the digitized stream network taken from 1:100,000-scale USGS topographic maps as the sample frame. Using a GIS, first- through third-order (wadeable) stream segments in the sample frame were randomly laid out in a line and sampled at fixed intervals after a random start. We used a variable probability approach so that roughly equal numbers of first-, second-, and third-order stream sites would appear in the sample. The sample design allows inference from the sample data to the status of the entire 230,400 km of wadeable stream length in the mid-Atlantic study area. Of this mapped stream length, 10% was not in the target population because no stream channel existed (4%), the stream channel was dry (5%), or the stream was not wadeable (1%). We were unable to collect field data from another 10% of the mapped stream length due to lack of access (mostly landowner denials). Thus, the field data we collected at 509 sites allows inference to the ecological condition for 184,600 km of the mapped stream length in the region.     

An integrated approach to assess broad-scale condition of coastal wetlands—the Gulf of Mexico Coastal Wetlands pilot survey

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) initiated a two-year regional pilot survey in 2007 to develop, test, and validate tools and approaches to assess the condition of northern Gulf of Mexico (GOM) coastal wetlands. Sampling sites were selected from estuarine and palustrine wetland areas with herbaceous, forested, and shrub/scrub habitats delineated by the US Fish and Wildlife Service National Wetlands Inventory Status and Trends (NWI S&T) program and contained within northern GOM coastal watersheds. A multi-level, stepwise, iterative survey approach is being applied to multiple wetland classes at 100 probabilistically-selected coastal wetlands sites. Tier 1 provides information at the landscape scale about habitat inventory, land use, and environmental stressors associated with the watershed in which each wetland site is located. Tier 2, a rapid assessment conducted through a combination of office and field work, is based on best professional judgment and on-site evidence. Tier 3, an intensive site assessment, involves on-site collection of vegetation, water, and sediment samples to establish an integrated understanding of current wetland condition and validate methods and findings from Tiers 1 and 2. The results from this survey, along with other similar regional pilots from the Mid-Atlantic, West Coast, and Great Lakes Regions will contribute to a design and implementation approach for the National Wetlands Condition Assessment to be conducted by EPA’s Office of Water in 2011.     

Comparison of macroinvertebrate sampling methods for nonwadeable streams

Bioassessment of nonwadeable streams in the United States is increasing, but methods for these systems are not as well-developed as for wadeable streams. In this study, we compared six macroinvertebrate field sampling methods for nonwadeable streams adapted from those used by three major programs: the U.S. Environmental Protection Agencys Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program-Surface Waters, the U.S. Geological Surveys National Water Quality Assessment Program, and the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, Division of Surface Water Biocriteria Program. We performed all six methods at 60 sites across four rivers and measured water chemistry and physical habitat at each site to assess abiotic conditon. Sites were divided into two groups: those influenced by navigational lock and dam structures (restricted flow, or RF) and those free-flowing or with lowhead dams (run-of-the-river, or ROR). Metrics based on passive Hester-Dendy artificial substrate samplers differed greatly from active sampling methods (i.e., using nets) but represented abiotic conditions well in both ROR and RF sites. Although metric values were similar across certain sampling methods, the metrics significantly correlated with abiotic variables varied among methods and between ROR and RF sites. These results emphasize that methods are not interchangeable, and the ability to detect certain stressors depends on sampling method.The U.S. Governments right to retain a non-exclusive, royalty free licence in and to any copyright is acknowledged.