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Abstracts/General Information Re. Projects Selected for the National Lakes Assessment Planning Project (NLAPP) in 2005Oct. 21, 2005 Title: Implementation and Interpretation of Lakes Assessment Data for the Upper Midwest Submitted by: Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Fisheries and Aquatic Science Research Program Response to Announcement: EPA-OW-OWOW-NLAPP 2005-2 Submitted: April 16, 2005 Principal Investigators: Dr. Martin Jennings, Dr. Jennifer Hauxwell, Dr. John Lyons, and Ed Emmons. Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences Research Program, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Contact: Ed Emmons, Response to Funding Priority Category 2 Field Studies and Pilot Projects Abstract: Lake assessment and condition monitoring is a continuing goal of both the US EPA as well as state and local units of government. With all the diverse questions and multiple needs of resource managers, government, and citizens, lake assessment tools and monitoring must be robust and applicable to multiple scales. In this proposal, we describe work that will address three components of progress toward a whole lake and bioassessment strategy. The ultimate goal of this proposal is the development of a comprehensive lake assessment decision model or framework that would identify appropriate metrics and scales to define current lake health for national and regional comparisons, set realistic local lake management goals, and effectively communicate lake health issues to citizen groups. The Wisconsin Baseline Lakes Monitoring Program is designed to provide a comprehensive view of the state's lentic resources. Sampling includes measures of water quality, aquatic life, and contaminants. This sampling effort provides a data set ideally suited to developing and validating bioassessment strategies appropriate to the questions and spatial scale of interest to management agencies, local governments, and citizen groups. This first objective addresses issues of statistical methodology and geographic scale in development of lakes classification for lake assessment. We propose to compare a statistically based method of lakes classification to a traditional classification based on simple lake morphometric information and to compare the use of a probabilistic sampling design within each type of classification. After identifying the method providing lowest variability in limnological and morphological data within classes, bioassessment methods will be examined for power and sensitivity within each classification. Finally, each classification method will be examined across the proposed bioassessment metrics to determine sensitivity and power in a probabilistic sampling design across lake classes. This approach will yield the classification method that provides the most utility in terms of power and sensitivity to detect changes in lake health and condition in response to anthropogenic causes. Within the identified lake classes we will also define both a contemporary spatial and historical temporal reference condition. Sediment cores from lakes have been successfully used to reconstruct historical changes in numerous environmental variables including pH, color, water clarity, and phosphorus. Comparison of phosphorus concentrations across a temporal gradient since settlement will identify appropriate reference conditions. Recent monitoring within WDNR has resulted in data suitable for refining indicators based on fish, and validating relations between stressor variables and fish-based indicators of ecological condition. Fish-based indicators will be evaluated across a range of stressor conditions within individual lake class to arrive at lake class specific calibrated indexes of biotic integrity for use in bio-assessment of lakes. Given the wide range of anthropogenic processes that may affect aquatic plants, these taxa also represent a potential tool for detecting environmental alterations to lakes. This project will examine the use of aquatic macrophytes statewide as a measure of lake health. We propose to examine lakes in various ecoregions of Wisconsin along a gradient of perturbation in watershed land-use and residential development. Wisconsin has a long tradition of water quality and TSI sampling in lakes for use as an assessment tool. Data have been collected by WDNR personnel as well as by citizens. The Self-Help Citizen Lake Monitoring network, since its inception in 1986, has provided water quality on over 1,083 lakes statewide. In addition, satellite imagery methodology has been developed to determine water clarity for all lakes simultaneously on a regular basis. We propose to use rank concordance between lake assessment metrics (Fish IBI, Macrophyte FQI, and Water Quality) and anthropogenic stressors at the watershed, lake catchment, whole lake, and sampling site levels to evaluate the potential utility of these assessment tools to assess lake ecosystem health and condition. We will evaluate relative cost-effectiveness of competing methods and produce a recommendation for further development of bioassessment based on the most reliable and cost effective indicator taxon or combination of taxa. Title: Developing Reference Conditions, Indicators, Field Methodology, and Indices of Biotic Integrity for a National Lake Survey Submitted by: Alan T. Herlihy and Robert M. Hughes Applicant Organization: Oregon State University Response to EPA Announcement Number: EPA-OW-OWOW-NLAPP 2005-2 Date of submission: April 13, 2005
Response to Funding Priority Category 2 Abstract EPA seeks to conduct a national lake assessment that will evaluate indicators of the ecological condition of lakes, reservoirs, and ponds at large regional scales. We propose to assist EPA's national lake assessment by: For a national lake survey to be of maximal value to EPA and the states, it will need a probability-based design to provide a rigorous foundation for inferring current status of all lakes in the sampled population and for assessing future deterioration or improvement in lake conditions. However, a probabilistic lake survey is often not an effective approach for identifying minimally-disturbed reference conditions because there are very few truly undisturbed or minimally-disturbed lakes. In some ecoregions, true reference lakes are non-existent while in other regions, they are so rare that a probability-based sampling design is unlikely to select them. It is therefore necessary to explicitly search for lakes that are likely to exhibit reference conditions apart from the probabilistic survey. Lakes commonly depart from reference conditions due to eutrophication, acidification, watershed disturbances, and alien species (especially fish and aquatic plants). Each of these perturbations increases the likelihood that a given lake will exhibit physical, chemical, and/or biological conditions that depart from the natural background situation. Each can be assessed in general terms using existing data for thousands of lakes throughout the United States. We propose to develop and implement within selected regions, an approach for screening lakes as potential reference sites. Our resulting lists of candidate reference lakes will be provided to EPA for possible inclusion as special interest sites in future surveys of statistically-selected lakes. Because of the well-known variability in lake reference conditions across the landscape, candidate reference lakes will be classified into groups according to hydrologic type, size, and ecoregion. We will also document this reference site screening approach so it can be applied by EPA in other parts of the country. We will contact state agencies to obtain information regarding their current sampling methods and ecological indicators for lake assessments. These methods and indicators will be compared with those developed by EPA in conjunction with the lake component of the Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (EMAP). Based on our review of the national and state methods, and discussion with a Scientific Advisory Committee formed for this project, we will offer a set of recommendations regarding both methodology and selection of indicators applicable for this new national survey. We will evaluate the efficacy of evaluating extent of impact using a wide range of physical, chemical, and biological variables. Lastly, we will use the EMAP northeast lake survey data and survey data from the states of Michigan and Washington to produce fish assemblage IBIs (indices of biological integrity) applicable to our study regions. Title: Evaluation of Reference Site Classification Schemes, Probability-based Survey Designs, Biological Indicators, Biotic Tolerance Values, and the Comparability of Different Sampling Methods for Western Lakes and Ponds In response to EPA Announcement Number: EPA-OW-OWOW-NLAPP 2005-02 Funding Priority Category 2: Field Studies and Pilot Studies Submitted: 15 April 2005 Submitted by: Charles P. Hawkins and Yong Cao Roland Knapp and Mark Vinson Contact: Charles Hawkins, 435-797-228, chuck.hawkins@usu.edu Abstract This proposal describes research designed to address 5 questions critical to establishing scientifically defensible programs of biological assessment in lake ecosystems: Title: HGLC Lake Classification for Lake Assessment Name of applicant organization: Michigan State University Response to EPA Announcement Number: EPA-OW-OWOW-NLAPP 2005-2 Date of Submission: April 17, 2005 Name of applicant contact person: Patricia A. Soranno
Response to Funding Priority Category 2 (Field studies and pilot projects) FULL LIST OF PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATORS: PI: Patricia Soranno, Michigan State University Maine: Wisconsin: Iowa: Ohio: Additional 'cooperators': Abstract Broad-scale assessment of lakes, ponds, and reservoirs (hereafter lakes) is challenging for several reasons. First is that lakes vary widely in trophic status, lake chemistry, and species composition making the effect of human disturbances difficult to determine. Second is the historical predominance of non-probabilitstic monitoring efforts. Third is the lack of a holistic framework to integrate state and national level management priorities. Fortunately, in the last decade, our understanding of how the underlying hydrogeomorpphic template structures lake properties across ecoregions and along hydrologic flowpaths has increased significantly. This hydrogeomorphic template perspective provides a fresh opportunity and perspective is especially promising because it has been successfully integrated into broad-scale probabilistic steam assessments (such as the Wadeable Stream Assessment). Our two overarching goals are to develop a robust and widely applicable lake classification framework (the Hydrogeographic Lake Classification System, HGLC), and to use this framework to build a lake assessment toolbox for state and national needs. Our HGLC framework will be a hierarchical classification of lakes consisting of a regionalization scheme (frame), lake landscape position, and lake morphometry. The lake assessment toolbox will include methods to identify lake reference conditions, bioassessment indicators, biological condition gradients, and data gaps in sampling programs. A strength of this proposal is our use of hierarchical linear modeling, a statistical approach that is designed for hierarchical data, to build our HGLC framework. Another strength is our access to existing data across a hydrogeomorphologically diverse and lake-rich five state region. Our first step in building the HGLC framework will be assembling existing landscape, human activity, and lake response variable data from the region and quantifying the bias in these data sets resulting from their non-random selection of lakes. Because human disturbance can obscure expected landscape patterns we will restrict our analysis to lake with the lowest quartile levels of human disturbance. We will then use hierarchical linear modeling to determine the appropriate regionalization frame, landscape position variable, and lake morphometry variable. Each component will be chosen based on its ability to explain variation in lake response variables spanning water chemistry, primary producers, zooplankton, and fish assemblages. Once we have the important lake classification variables identified, we will form discrete lake classes and assign ever lake to a lake class. Then, within the lake classes, we will examine lake responses along a human disturbance gradient. This will enable us to verify the ability of our lake classification remove 'natural' variation due to the underlying geomorphic template. Finally, we will test our HGLC framework using independent existing probabilistic data sets. We then will show how the HGLC framework can be used to build the lake assessment toolbox for regions with sufficient data. These tools include the prediction (and, in selected groups. paleolimnologic testing) of reference conditions within each classification group, evaluation of bioassessment indicators of various forms of human disturbance, and use of multiple indicators to develop management targets corresponding to biological condition gradients. In addition we will identify gaps in both the spatial coverage of existing lake data sets as well as underrepresented lake classes. Because our framework is based on a strong limnological foundation, our classification approach will provide a biologically-relevant framework for the integration of state and national monitoring efforts. Because we include emerging technologies such as remote sensing, historic and current data from citizen monitoring programs, and a wide variety of cooperators, our project is poised to develop a robust and effective classification framework, and associated tools, that can be readily extended to a national framework for lake assessment. TITLE: NATIONAL CONFERENCE FOR NATIONAL LAKES ASSESSMENT PLANNING PROJECT Name of applicant organization: Chicago Horticultural Society - Botanic Garden Response to EPA Announcement Number: EPA-OW-OWOW-NLAPP 2005-2 Date of submission: April 16, 2005 Name of applicant contact person: Robert J. Kirschner Mailing address: 1000 Lake Cook Road, Glencoe, Illinois, 60022 Telephone number: 847/835-6837 Email: bkirschn@chicagobotanic.org Response to Funding Priority Category: 1 ABSTRACT The Chicago Botanic Garden together with the North American Lake Management Society are pleased to submit this proposal to conduct a national conference for the National Lakes Assessment Planning Project. This conference will provide a national forum for lake assessment practitioners and other lake experts to help formulate a future national lake monitoring and assessment project, and to build capacity at all levels of both government and non-governmental organizations to develop and implement comprehensive monitoring projects for lakes, reservoirs, and ponds. Representatives from academia as well as federal, state, interstate, tribal, and volunteer-oriented organizations will be encouraged to attend with the objective of developing a consensus approach to a national lake assessment. This national conference is proposed for April 25-28, 2006 in downtown Chicago. We propose that this conference be dovetailed with a highly successful, ongoing national lakes conference series, the "Annual National Conferences on Enhancing the States' Lake Management Programs," that has been held in Chicago every spring since 1988. These annual conferences have been cosponsored with the U.S. EPA and the North American Lake Management Society, and they have consistently provided exceptional opportunities for state agency staff, researchers, and academia involved with lake management, monitoring, and assessment to share information and learn about innovative approaches to assess, restore, and protect our Nation's lake resources. Statewide lake management organizations and citizen-based volunteer lake monitoring programs also have been target audiences for this annual gathering, and one or more leaders from nearly all of the country's 30-plus statewide organizations attend each year. A strategic partnership between the Chicago Botanic Garden and the North American Lake Management Society is the most effective and efficient approach for U.S. EPA to conduct this national lakes assessment conference. This partnership brings the conference planning and water quality management skills of the Chicago Botanic Garden together with the broad-based scientific knowledge and technical expertise of the North American Lake Management Society.
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