| Introduction
LTEM Components: |
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| · | Mandates, Goals, and Components [ Chart ¨ Text ] |
| · | Geologic Resources [ Chart ¨ Text ] |
| · | Atmospheric Resources [ Chart ¨ Text ] |
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Aquatic Habitat [ Chart ¨ Text ] |
| · | Aquatic Biota [ Chart ¨ Text ] |
| · | Terrestrial Vegetation [ Chart ¨ Text ] |
| · | Terrestrial Fauna [ Chart ¨ Text ] |
| · | Human Resources [ Chart ¨ Text ] |
| · | Cultural Resources [ Chart ¨ Text ] |
Long-Term Ecological Monitoring Conceptual Plan
| Aquatic Habitat | Chart |
Abstract
Monitoring Components:
- Parkwide Inventory and Classification of the Components of Riverine Systems
- Watershed-Scale River Inventory and Monitoring
- Stream-Reach Scale Aquatic Habitat Monitoring
- Riverine
- Lakes and Ponds
- Reservoirs
One of the most notable characteristics of the North Cascades National Park Service Complex (NOCA) is its abundance and diversity of aquatic habitats. There are over 500 ponds and lakes, and approximately 6,500 kilometers of rivers and streams (excluding intermittent streams, which may increase the total to over 10,000 km) located in the Park Complex. NOCA watersheds eventually flow into three major river systems: Columbia River, Fraser River and Skagit River. There are three reservoirs within Ross Lake N.R.A., all behind dams built to provide hydroelectric power. A small hydroelectric project on Newhalem Creek provides further power via a stream diversion. Two major hydropower impoundments are also found downstream from the park boundary on the Baker River, a major tributary to the Skagit and one of few sockeye salmon streams in the Pacific Northwest. Lake Chelan, located in the Lake Chelan National Recreational Area, is the third deepest natural lake in the United States. It was dammed in the 1920's to regulate its elevation for hydroelectric power.
A primary goal of the monitoring program is to track and understand how aquatic communities and habitats respond to natural processes, and to be able to distinguish differences between human-induced disturbance effects to aquatic ecosystems and those caused by natural processes. Major natural disturbances affecting the mountainous regions in the Pacific Northwest include episodic floods, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, geomorphic changes in stream channels and landforms, fire, wind, insect infestations and glacial activity. Human-induced disturbances include alterations of water quality and quantity, and habitat destruction or modification, and biological alterations (e.g. non-native species introductions, fish harvest and stocking, logging, etc.).
Evaluation of aquatic habitat is critical to understanding natural processes and in the interpretation of impairment. Habitat assessment plays an important role in determining constraints of potential integrity or use of a site. The attainment of higher quality biological condition may be prohibited by the constraints of habitat quality. Aquatic habitat complexity is a primary factor influencing the diversity of fish, amphibian, and macroinvertebrate communities. Attributes of aquatic habitats include the variety and range of hydraulic conditions (e.g. width, depth, and water velocity), numbers of pieces and size of wood, types and frequency of habitat units, and variety of bed substrate, water temperature, and water chemistry parameters etc.
Achievement of goals and objectives requires a monitoring program that integrates various spatial scales through time to analyze or index natural processes and human-induced perturbations. The monitoring approach accommodates the various scales using extensive coarse level inventories, at the park-wide scale, and intensive sampling, at the local site scale. It follows a watershed approach that tracks upslope processes and conditions, but places emphasis and enhanced resolution on aquatic/riparian habitat and communities. In order to accomplish this it will be necessary to stratify the park complex by an integrated classification system. A classification system that incorporates various spatial scales and allows for the development of ecologically meaningful strata is required. This approach expands the scope of data interpretation to unsampled areas and simplifies comparisons between sampled areas. Construction of sampling strata will improve sampling efficiency and the sensitivity of statistical tests.
Parkwide Inventory and Classification of the Components of Riverine Systems
Monitoring/Research Questions: What are the types and distribution of channel and habitat types throughout the park?
Stressors and Related Factors: Climatic change, land use, major disturbances (floods, landslides, volcanic eruptions, and earthquakes).
What To Monitor: Channel gradient, channel confinement, and stream order – a map exercise that is ground-truthed. Overlay other park-wide databases (e.g., landslides, geology, visitor use, aquatic population usage, etc.).
Where To Monitor: Entire park at 10-20 year frequency.
Justification and Other Information: The inventory will provide the foundation for stratifying sites for intensive stream-reach monitoring and for linking landform, climatic processes, and geomorphology to critical habitat features such as riparian vegetation, distribution of aquatic biota (anadromous fish), and impacts caused by visitor use.
Contacts/Potential Partners: USGS-Water Resources Division and Biological Resources Division, NPS-Water Resources Division.
Monitoring Component: Watershed-Scale River Inventory and Monitoring
Monitoring/Research Questions: What are the chemical, physical, and biological characteristics and process-interactions of key watersheds?
Stressors And Related Factors: Landform processes, floods, climatic change, land use, visitor use, vegetation changes due to fire and disease, mines, wet and dry deposition.
What To Monitor: Physical: (1) classify stream reaches; (2) habitat survey using standard protocols (channel units, large woody debris loading, pool dimensions/ frequency); (3) gauging station (use standard USGS protocol); (4) bed mobility (particle tracers, scour chains, bed load sampling)--discretionary. Chemical: TSS, nutrients, pH, DO. Biological: (1) riparian inventory (vegetation type, quality, age/size); (2) aquatic population surveys stratified by reach type. Overlay above information with watershed geology, hillslope geomorphology, land use, etc.
Where To Monitor: Channel classification: entire watershed (map exercise, ground truthed). Habitat survey: entire watershed if inventory required or a sample of channel types. Chemical: several sites throughout the watershed stratified by reach type, including one higher order stream in a depositional zone. Gauging station: one continuous station per watershed, unless a watershed can be represented by a station in another watershed. Bed mobility: discretionary. Watershed selection: eastside/westside environments; glacial/non-glacial; reference sites for nearby restoration projects.
Justification And Other Information: Watershed units are a valuable scale for assessing stream habitats and processes influencing them; allows identification of process linkages and rate-limiting factors within a watershed ecosystem. Provides a "snapshot’ of habitat conditions and a template for stratifying biological sampling and identifying critical stream reaches for reach monitoring. Goals of this component are to provide a holistic understanding of physical and biological processes within key watersheds, to understand past and current conditions, and to predict response to future perturbations.
Contacts/Potential Partners: USGS-Water Resources Division and Biological Resources Division, NPS-Water Resources Division, University of Washington.
Stream-Reach Scale Aquatic Habitat Monitoring
Monitoring/Research Question: What are the physical and chemical controls on reach-scale aquatic habitat?
Stressors and Related Factors: Acidic and nutrient laden wet and dry atmospheric deposition; visitor use disturbance, including trampling, destruction of vegetation, nutrient inputs, inactive and active mines.
What To Monitor: Physical: channel geomorphology and habitat characteristics. Construct topographic, wood, channel unit, riparian vegetation, and bed-grain size maps over reaches that are 20+ channel widths in length. Identify and sample grain-size patches using standard protocols. Establish several monumented cross-sections within the reach to determine channel geometry (width, depth, etc.). Optional measurements: velocity, grain mobility (particle tracers, scour chains, bedload transport). Link with biological surveys. Chemical: temperature, nutrients, DO, pH, conductivity (one location within a reach). Nutrients and temperature should be measured frequently; full chemical survey at longer intervals.
Where To Monitor: Critical reaches identified from the watershed monitoring survey. Most commonly, will be a lower gradient, gravel-bed, pool-riffle morphology for salmonids.
Justification and Other Information: Provides detailed understanding of physical and biological conditions and response potential of critical stream reaches identified from the watershed-scale monitoring survey. Reach maps of physical and biological characteristics are an easily understood, visual record of channel conditions and are an effective means of monitoring channel change in response to natural and human-caused disturbance.
Contacts/Potential Partners: USGS-Water Resources Division and Biological Resources Division, NPS-Water Resources Division, University of Washington.
Monitoring Component: Riverine
Monitoring/Research Question: What are the sources, transport mechanisms and fate of sediment and large woody debris in North Cascades NP riverine systems?Stressors and Related Factors: Climatic change, land use, catastrophic events (floods, landslides, volcanic eruptions, and earthquakes).
What To Monitor: Sediment: construct a watershed/sub-watershed sediment budget using standard procedures (see Dietrich and Dunne, Reid and Dunne). Identify sediment sources (mass movements, eroding banks, etc.) and storage sites/sinks (bars, floodplain, etc.). Monitor changes in sediment storage through periodic channel cross-section measurement or plan maps of bar dimensions. Wood: locate and inventory large wood. Identify sources (blowdown events, mass movement input, etc.) and sinks (channel/off-channel storage, decay, etc.). Locate wood by aerial photo, field mapping, videography, etc. Tag wood and monitor its movement (yearly). Identify causes and styles of movement. Monitor wood and sediment movement at 1-5 yr intervals and after major hydrologic or mass movement events. A discharge record (nearby gauging station) is also required.
Where To Monitor: Representative sites within the basin (e.g., steep, medium, low gradient sections of the channel network; upstream and downstream of recent blowdowns, wood-bearing debris flows, etc.). Watershed selection: see Watershed-Scale River Monitoring/Inventory Component.
Justification and Other Information: Wood and sediment movement can alter channel morphology and aquatic habitat. A baseline survey of the magnitude and frequency of this disturbance mechanism is needed to quantify park processes and provide a reference for restoration studies. Wood and sediment movement can also be an indicator/responder of climatic change.
Contacts/Potential Partners: USGS-Water Resources Division and Biological Resources Division, NPS-Water Resources Division, University of Washington.
Monitoring Component: Lakes and Ponds
Monitoring/Research Question: What is the chemical and physical status of lakes and ponds? Are lakes and ponds undergoing acidification and nutrient enrichment?Stressors and Related Factors: Acidic and nutrient-laden wet and dry atmospheric deposition; visitor-use disturbance, including trampling, destruction of vegetation, nutrient inputs, inactive and active mines.
What To Monitor: A park-wide inventory will be used to classify lakes and ponds into broad physical and chemical categories. At a minimum, all lakes and ponds in the park will be classified as to their physiographic and geomorphological environments based on elevation, floodplain setting, and dependence on and linkages to riverine systems. Based on the analysis and interpretation of data collected to determine the chemical, physical, and geomorphic class of lakes and ponds, a subset of reference lakes and ponds will be selected for long-term monitoring of the following indicators of acidification and nutrient enrichment: acid neutralizing capacity (ANC), pH, electrical conductivity (Ec), total nitrogen, total phosphorus, clarity (Secchi disk or light transmittance), dissolved oxygen (DO), and chlorophyll a. Monitoring littoral habitat characteristics, including abundance and species distribution of littoral vegetation (submerged, floating, and emergent), sediment size classes, and presence of large woody debris should be considered.
Where To Monitor: Reference lakes should be selected to represent classes based on geomorphic, chemical and physical characteristics for long-term monitoring. They should also represent alpine, subalpine, and forested zones. At least 2-3 lakes and ponds with ANCs <50 m eq/L, circumneutral to acidic pH, and conductivities below 50 m mhos/cm should be included. Total number of lakes will be constrained by monitoring resources.
Justification and Other Information: The inventories will provide information that presently is not available on the aquatic habitats of the park, and will lay the foundation for detecting changes that may be caused by regional atmospheric transport and deposition of acidic, nutrient-enriched contaminants, and expected increases in visitor use. Long-term monitoring of lakes and ponds will determine if aquatic habitat quality, as measured by basic chemical parameters, is being altered by acidic deposition and visitor use.
Contacts/Potential Partners: USGS-Water Resources Division and Biological Resources Division, NPS-Water Resources Division
Monitoring Component: Reservoirs
Monitoring/Research Question: Identify and define basic limnologic processes and the sanitary quality of Ross Lake and Lake Chelan.Stressors And Related Factors: Visitor use, sedimentation.
What To Monitor: Basic information on chemical and physical limnologic characteristics and processes and the suitability of water for body-contact recreation are not known for Ross Lake and Lake Chelan. To develop information on hypolimnic, eplimnic, thermoclinic, and sanitary conditions, the following mapping and long-term monitoring programs are proposed:
- Complete bathymetric mapping of Ross Lake and Lake Chelan. Maps that define major submerged features and reservoir depth will be developed at scale of 1:6000 with 10-foot topographic contour intervals.
- Based on the interpretation of the bathymetric map, a mid-section, longitudinal point-to-point transect will be established on the reservoir where vertical-depth-integrated sampling will occur. Each point on the transect will be identified by GPS coordinates. Long-term monitoring will be conducted to identify and define the locations and chemical and physical characteristics of the hypolimnion, epilimnion, and the thermocline. Initially, monitoring at each point should be conducted biannually for two years, and decadally there after. Physical and chemical data collected from pre-determined depths at each point will consist of temperature, DO, pH, electrical conductivity, total nitrogen, total phosphorus, chlorophyll a, and clarity (Secchi disk depth or light transmittance)
- The suitability of waters for swimming and bathing by visitors will be determined by monitoring for the appropriate fecal-indicator bacteria (i.e. fecal coliform or Escherichia coli) at areas of high use as prescribed by regulations promulgated by the Washington State Department of Ecology.
Where To Monitor: Ross Lake and Lake Chelan.
Justification And Other Information: The results of the monitoring programs will lay the foundation to detect changes that may be caused by regional atmospheric transport and deposition of acidic, nutrient enriched contaminants, and will help ensure visitor safety.
Contacts/Potential Partners: USGS-Water Resources Division and Biological Resources Division, NPS-Water Resources Division.
