# Presentation: 201167

## Long Term Biological Monitoring on the Upper Mississippi River:

**Long Term Biological Monitoring on the Upper Mississippi River:**
**A Springboard For Broad-Scale, Multidisciplinary Investigations**

- David M. Soballe
- U.S. Geological Survey
- Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center

## UMR PARTNERS

**NASQAN**

**NAWQA**

**USEPA**

**USACOE**

**NRP**

**Districts**

**USFWS**

**NPS**

**USDA**

**INHS**

**IEPA**

**WDNR**

**MPCA**

**IDNR**

**MoDC**

**MDNR**

**Met.Council**

**UMR PARTNERS**

**UMESC**

## UMR PARTNERS

**LTRMP**

**Provides Foundation and Connecting Web for Big River Ecological Studies**

**UMR PARTNERS**

## LTRMP Part of the Environmental Management Program (EMP)

**Established by Act of Congress in 1986 to counter effects of navigation**
**2/3 EMP budget = Habitat Rehabilitation and Enhancement Program (HREP -USACOE)**
**1/3 EMP budget = Long Term Resource Monitoring Program (LTRMP-USDOI)**
**USACOE given oversight responsibility**

## LTRMP Study Area: The Upper Mississippi River System (UMRS).

**LTRMP Study Area: The Upper Mississippi River System (UMRS).**
**Mississippi River mainstem between Ohio River and St. Paul, Minnesota, plus the Illinois River**

## The LTRMP is Multi-Disciplinary: Research, Monitoring, and Data Access

**Fisheries**
**Water Quality**
**Aquatic and Floodplain Vegetation**
**Aquatic Invertebrates**
**Sedimentation and Bathymetry**
**Land Cover and Land Use**
**Data Delivery**

## LTRMP WQ Activity Driven by Resource Management

**Detect changes in habitat availability and suitability**
**Assess normal variations and natural interactions among river biota and the physiochemical environment**
**Evaluate effects of human activities**
**Evaluate effects of watershed inputs**
**Link river biology to transport and transformation of nutrients and sediment **

## Upper Mississippi Resource Issues Cover a Broad Spectrum

**nutrients**
**aquatic habitat**
- sedimentation
- navigation
- water supply
- waste disposal
- flood control
- hydropower
- recreation
- water quality

- toxic spills
- migratory animals
- hypoxia
- sustainable agriculture
- buffer zones
- contaminants
- biotic diversity
- endangered species
- native cultures
- history & archaeology

**Notes:**
Add  slides from Hank showing basin landcover and nutrient applications.

## Two-Phase Approach to Limnological (WQ) Monitoring in LTRMP

**Fixed site sampling (FSS) at permanent locations and fixed intervals (2- 4 weeks)**
**Stratified random sampling (SRS) conducted quarterly**

**Notes:**
Add  slides from Hank showing basin landcover and nutrient applications.

## Fixed Locations - Fixed Intervals 

**Permanent sampling locations (8-20) in each of 6 study reaches**
**Focus on short-term variations, watershed influences, downstream transformation and transport**
**2 - ****4**** week sampling intervals**
**About  3,800 site visits per year **

**Notes:**
Add  slides from Hank showing basin landcover and nutrient applications.

## Stratified Random Sampling 

**Gives unbiased estimates of seasonal conditions in broad aquatic areas within the study reaches**
**Quarterly sampling in specific date windows **
**2-5 sampling strata (probability sample) in each of 6 study reaches**
**150 sites per episode, per study reach (3,600 site visits per year)**

**Notes:**
Add  slides from Hank showing basin landcover and nutrient applications.

## SRS Spatial Scale

**SRS Spatial Scale**

## Water Quality Measurements

**Total nitrogen**
**Ammonium**
**Nitrate + nitrite**
**Total phosphorus**
**Soluble reactive phos.**
**Dissolved Silica**
**Total suspended solids**
**Volatile suspended solids**
**Chlorophyll/phytoplankton**
**Ions : Ca,K,Mg,Na: Cl,SO****4**
**Sediment**

**Water depth**
**Secchi transparency**
**Ice and snow**
**Temperature**
**Dissolved oxygen**
**pH**
**Conductivity**
**Turbidity**
**Velocity**

**Notes:**
Add  slides from Hank showing basin landcover and nutrient applications.

## LTRMP WQ Provides Fundamental Limnological Information

**Emphasis  on biological aspects of water quality: nutrients, sediment, and physical limnology**
**1993 to present: 7 study reaches (9 navigational pools,  40 tributaries)**
**Only source of current limnological data for much of Upper Mississippi River System**

## Program Resources Are Stretched

**Over 1,000 river miles within the study area**
**Six field stations with staff**
**About $150 per site visit **
**85,000 chemical measurements in 1999**** **
**Lab & Field QA/QC = about 40% of total**
**ab****out $2.50 per measurement (12% of WQ budget in LTRMP)**
**30% reduction in effort in FY2000**
**additional reductions likely.**

**Notes:**
Add  slides from Hank showing basin landcover and nutrient applications.

## LTRMP Supports Multiple Scales of Investigation and Collaboration

**Whole Basin - Decades**
**River reaches (multiple years)**
**Individual locations (hours-years)**

**Notes:**
Add  slides from Hank showing basin landcover and nutrient applications.

## Slide 17

## Fall Nitrate + Nitrite in Pools 4, 8, and 13

**Fall Nitrate + Nitrite in Pools 4, 8, and 13**

## Total Nitrogen Flux in Pool 13

**Input **
**Output**

**Notes:**
Spatial Patterns from Hank
Long-term patterns:
   Alton, Keokuk, Winona.Clinton.

Delivery ratios for these subbasins.

## Mississippi River near Harper’s Ferry, Iowa  (Pool 10)

## Slide 21

## UMR Collaborations Within USGS Are Well Established

**LTRMP-UMESC-NRP **
**UMESC-LTRMP**
**LTRMP – NASQAN**
**LTRMP-Districts-NASQAN**

**Notes:**
Add  slides from Hank showing basin landcover and nutrient applications.

## LTRMP And NASQAN? 

**Differing objectives, differing design, but overlap in study areas and parameters**
**Collaborations in selected areas seem very promising**
**A more complete picture can be obtained in combination than in isolation**

**Notes:**
Add  slides from Hank showing basin landcover and nutrient applications.

## Differing Focus = Differing Design

**Notes:**
Add  slides from Hank showing basin landcover and nutrient applications.

## Design Differences

**NASQAN**
**Infrequent (monthly, quarterly)**
**Integrated, isokinetic channel cross-sections **
**Many parameters**
**Few locations (3-4 in UMR) **
**LTRMP**
**Frequent (biweekly, monthly, quarterly)**
**Discrete horizontal & vertical samples**
**Few transects, few vertical profiles**
**Fewer parameters**
**Many locations (about 1000)**

**Notes:**
Add  slides from Hank showing basin landcover and nutrient applications.

## Common Locations 

**Clinton**

**Grafton**

**Thebes**

**Notes:**
Add  slides from Hank showing basin landcover and nutrient applications.

## Comparability of Flux at Thebes 

**Suspended Solids**

**Total Phosphorus**

**Notes:**
Add  slides from Hank showing basin landcover and nutrient applications.

## Short-term Patterns Not Addressed by NASQAN 

**Notes:**
Add  slides from Hank showing basin landcover and nutrient applications.

## Additional NASQAN-LTRMP Comparison and Collaboration Underway

**Splitting samples between labs**
**Simultaneous sampling**
**Comparisons of existing data at Thebes, Grafton, and Clinton are progressing**
**Modelling to better cross-calibrate**

**Notes:**
Add  slides from Hank showing basin landcover and nutrient applications.

## EXAMPLE II: The Flood of 2001

**Combined BRD/WRD investigation**
**In-place capabilities allow this event to be monitored.**
**Combining expertise and sampling networks across divisions gives a more complete view.**
**See Poster**

**Notes:**
Add  slides from Hank showing basin landcover and nutrient applications.

## Combined Contributions

**WRD and NASQAN: discharge records, lower Miss. and Ohio concentrations**
**WRD Iowa City: special flood monitoring, (Lagrangian) of concentrations.**
**BRD and LTRMP: flood concentrations by routine monitoring.**
**BRD and WRD – data analysis and interpretation, joint authorship of manuscript.**

**Notes:**
Add  slides from Hank showing basin landcover and nutrient applications.

## Preliminary Results 

**Spring flood (2001) substantially different from Spring-Summer Flood (1993)**
**Flood from uppermost basin (2001) unlike flood of entire region (1993).**
**2001 flood volume was unremarkable below Thebes, but [NOx] was near records.**
**Lack of dilution from lower basin (Ohio) in 2001 sent high [NO****x**** ] to the Gulf. **

**Notes:**
Add  slides from Hank showing basin landcover and nutrient applications.

## WWW.UMESC.USGS.GOV

**Thanks,**
**Dave Soballe & Dennis Wasley**

## Slide 34

## Slide 35

## Primary LTRMP Products

**Unique information for resource managers and decision makers on large rivers**
**High-quality, relevant data, in readily accessible and useable forms**

**Notes:**
Add  slides from Hank showing basin landcover and nutrient applications.

## Common Ground 

**Overlap in major water quality constituents measured.**
**Both address long-term temporal patterns in the Upper Mississippi River.**
**Data collected at overlapping locations. **
**Comparable measurements obtained to the extent allowed by differing objectives.**

**Notes:**
Add  slides from Hank showing basin landcover and nutrient applications.