ESTUARINE AND GREAT LAKES (EaGLe) RESEARCH

STAR

RESEARCH

Vol. 5 Issue 1 July 2003 A product of the National Center for Environmental Research

Estuaries - the transitional zones where salt water from

the sea mixes with fresh water flowing from the land –

are one of our most valuable and stressed resources.

Through Science to Achieve Results (STAR), an Environmental Protection Agency program, five Estuarine and

Great Lakes (EaGLe) research programs were recently

established to help us understand how to better protect

these resources. The EaGLe Programs will work on developing the next generation of ecological indicators that

can be used in a comprehensive coastal monitoring program across the country’s coasts. This information will

feed into a strategy that will enable us to understand the

condition of our estuarine and coastal waters. To support

remote sensing research related to the coasts, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration has provided

additional funding for three of the programs.

Estuaries are biologically diverse, highly productive ecosystems that act as important nurseries and refuges for

numerous freshwater and marine finfish and shellfish. They

provide habitat for terrestrial wildlife. Estuaries process

nutrients and toxic substances that originate on land and

thus act as protective buffers for sensitive coastal waters.

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U.S. EPA Office of

Research and

Development’s Science

to Achieve Results

(STAR) Research in

Progress
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They also are used by many people as areas for public

enjoyment. With coastal populations increasing at a dramatic rate, there is a strong

need to find ways to maintain healthy ecosystems in

these areas.

Indicators are tools that can

be used to assess the current and future health of the

environment by relaying

complex messages from

numerous sources in a simplified and useful manner.

The EaGLe Programs will

identify and develop a new

suite of ecological and socioeconomic indicators that

focus on ecosystem processes in coastal areas. Some

of these ecological indicators — such as total species

diversity, biomass, land cover and land use, net primary

productivity, and water and nutrient discharge — describe

ecosystem health in terms of important variables including functionality, integrity, and sustainability. Functionality is the ability of an ecosystem to capture solar energy via photosynthesis and

store it as carbon-based

molecules. Integrity is the

degree to which an ecosystem supports a balanced

and resilient community of

organisms with processes

similar to natural habitats in

the same region.

Sustainability is the ability

of an ecosystem to maintain the functionality and integrity of its processes over

time. Socioeconomic indicators, such as expenditures

on wastewater treatment, can be useful in interpreting

stakeholders’ attitudes on environmental risks, understanding institutional and jurisdictional obstacles to

change, and communicating environmental information

in a meaningful way. Ecosystem managers will use these

new ecological and socioeconomic indicators to better

assess the health of the environment, set priorities, implement appropriate actions, and evaluate outcomes.

For additional information on the STAR EaGLe Program,

visit: http://www.epa.gov/ncer/centers/eagles/.

RELATIONSHIP TO OTHER PROGRAMS

The STAR EaGLe Program is the extramural component of EPA’s Environmental Monitoring and Assessment

Program (EMAP). EMAP’s goal is to develop the scientific understanding needed to translate environmental

monitoring data from multiple spatial and temporal scales

into assessments of ecological condition. It uses these

data to forecast future risks to the sustainability of our

natural resources. EMAP will transfer the approaches

and technology to states, which are responsible for water-quality monitoring under the Clean Water Act. The

EaGLe Program will support EMAP’s goal by developing the next generation of ecological indicators for these

monitoring programs. To learn more about EMAP, visit:

http://www.epa.gov/emap/.
INFORMATION ON INDIVIDUAL GRANTS

The Atlantic Slope Consortium

The Atlantic Slope Consortium (ASC) is led

by Pennsylvania State University. Other institutions in the consortium are the

Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences,

East Carolina University, Environmental

Law Institute, and FTN Associates. Researchers will study the Atlantic slope region, extending from the Appalachian

Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean. This area

consists of three major drainage basins:

the Delaware, Susquehanna-Chesapeake,

and Albemarle-Pamlico.

Emphasis is being placed on developing

and testing indicators, and constructing

models, that link conditions in upstream

watersheds to downstream estuaries. Upstream components of a watershed encompass stream reaches, riparian corridors, wetlands, and waterbodies and their contributing

drainage basins. This approach is based on the premise

that coasts, estuaries, rivers, streams, lakes, and wetlands must be viewed as an integrated system. The consortium is researching the applicability of aquatic indicators, such as nutrient and sediment discharges, and the

spatial distribution of engineered structures and optical

properties of estuarine waters, across the spectrum of

environments from best attainable to severely degraded.

A suite of socioeconomic indicators, including education level and membership in environmentally active associations, also will be evaluated. The development of

these socioeconomic indicators builds on work already

done in the Mid-Atlantic Region under other EPA programs such as the STAR Program on Decision-Making

and Valuation, the EPA/State Mid-Atlantic Integrated Assessment, and the EPA Regional Vulnerability Assessment (ReVA) Program. The socioeconomic data available to the consortium includes income, employment,

health, education level, crime, water supplies, and

wastewater treatment facilities.

Atlantic Coast Environmental Indicators

Consortium (ACE-INC)

The Atlantic Coast Environmental Indicators Consortium

(ACE-INC) is led by the University of North Carolina (UNC)

at Chapel Hill. Other institutions in the consortium are

the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, the University of South Carolina, Marine Biological

Laboratory at Woods Hole, Massachusetts, and in a federal collaboration role, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Beaufort Laboratory.
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The consortium selected four ecologically and hydrologically diverse estuarine ecosystems as study areas. The

four estuarine systems include the Nation’s two largest

estuarine complexes: the Chesapeake Bay and AlbemarlePamlico Sound, as well as a small riverine estuary in Massachusetts and a small bar-built estuary in South Carolina. The key indicators of interest are those that reflect

attributes of estuarine systems including primary production, phytoplankton and higher plant (marsh and seagrass)

biomass and composition, zooplankton and fish community structure, dissolved oxygen, and estuarine circulation.

The indicators will be tested for their applicability to estuaries with different primary producer bases, different biogeographic provinces, and similar and contrasting chemistry, circulation, and different freshwater flows and flushing times. In addition, each of the systems has been impacted in varying degrees by humans, thus affording the

opportunity to test the indicators’ ability to detect and differentiate between human and natural stresses, including hurricanes, flooding, and changes in sea level.

Researchers also will use calibrated and ground-truthed

remote sensing and real-time observing system data to

provide a regional or coast-wide ecosystem picture.

Even more importantly, these data will allow for rapid

detection and quantification of trends in coastal health.

The Pacific Estuarine Ecosystem Indicator

Research (PEEIR) Consortium

The Pacific Estuarine Ecosystem Indicator Research

(PEEIR) Consortium is led by the Bodega Marine Laboratory of the University of California at Davis, in partnership with the University of California at Santa Barbara.

Collaborators include the University of Georgia, The Bay

Institute, and the San Francisco Estuary Institute.

The overarching goal of PEEIR is to develop indicators of

wetland ecosystem integrity and propose an approach for
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synthesizing indicators in assessments of wetland health

along the Pacific coast. Traditional ecosystem sampling,

chemical analyses, and toxicity testing are not adequate

to address responses to multiple stressors in wetland ecosystems. For this reason, researchers will develop new

indicators for specific plant, fish, and invertebrate population health, as well as indicators of toxicant-induced stress

and bioavailability for wetland biota. Specific local problems, including wetland degradation and declining fish

populations in San Francisco Bay and in Southern California, mercury contamination in Tomales Bay, invasions

by exotic species, and pesticide contamination in Northern and Southern California watersheds, will be addressed

using these biological indicators.

Scientists will use the remote sensing component of this

research to establish landscape-level indicators of environmental stresses that can be routinely measured from

the air or space. This approach will take advantage of

high-spatial/spectral resolution instruments to better assess spatiotemporal aspects of ecosystem functioning.

Other programs that can benefit from this research include the CALFED Program that manages water resources in the San Francisco Bay and the upstream

Sacramento/San Joaquin systems, and the western component of EMAP.

Consortium for Estuarine Ecoindicator

Research for the Gulf of Mexico

The College of Marine Sciences at the University of Southern Mississippi is leading the Consortium for Estuarine

Ecoindicator Research for the Gulf of Mexico (CEERGOM). Other members of the consortium are the University of West Florida, Florida State University, University of Florida, University of Alabama, Louisiana State

University, Southeastern Louisiana University, University

of Texas Marine Sciences Institute, and University of

Washington. The CEER-GOM team will be working with

coastal managers from the five Gulf states to ensure that

their research is relevant and assist in incorporating the

research results into state monitoring programs.

The primary objective of CEER-GOM is to study and validate indicators of estuarine condition at four levels of biological complexity: organism, population, community, and

ecosystem/watershed. For example, at the organism level,

scientists will develop molecular indicators of dissolved oxygen (DO) stress as predictive indicators of reduced animal

fitness related to molting and reproduction. At the community level, they will study microbial biofilms and macrobenthic

communities as indicators of ecosystem integrity, resilience,

and function. At the ecosystem/watershed scale, remote

sensing will be used to analyze the spatio-temporal patterns

of ecosystem parameters such as landscape metrics, chlorophyll, surface-water temperature, and turbidity. Ultimately,

an Index of Estuarine Ecosystem Integrity (IEEI) will be developed, validated, and transferred to the states to monitor

estuarine conditions over the long term.

Great Lakes Environmental Indicators

(GLEI) Consortium

The Great Lakes Environmental Indicators (GLEI) Consortium is led by the Center for Water and the Environment in the Natural Resources Research Institute at

the University of Minnesota-Duluth. Other cooperators

include the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, Minnesota Sea Grant; University of Wisconsin-Green Bay;

the University of Wisconsin-Madison; Cornell University; John Carroll University; University of Michigan; and

the University of Windsor, Ontario.

GLEI researchers will be developing and testing a suite

of indicators across the range of habitats that form the

Great Lakes coastal region. To provide an understanding of coastal ecosystems within the larger basin, indicators will be developed that reflect the special characteristics of the entire basin, coast, and land margins. For the

basin as a whole, scientists will work with climate measures, land uses, and landscape characteristics. Waterquality contaminant levels and the relative abundances

of amphibian, bird, diatom, fish, macroinvertebrate, and

plant species and communities will be used as indicators

for estuaries, bays, and nearshore coastal waters. For

the land margins, scientists will measure the community

structure of birds. Each of these subcategories will be

linked to measures of habitat condition and other stressors in the Great Lakes coastal region.

This work will be coordinated with specific resource management and assessment programs including the binational State of the Lakes Ecosystem Conference

(SOLEC) and individual state programs under the Clean

Water Act. To promote effective communication and interaction with management agencies, scientists will coordinate with appropriate EPA research laboratories working in the region. They also will work closely with the

Great Lakes Sea Grant network.

For more information, visit our web site at

www.epa.gov/ncer
United States

Environmental Protection Agency

Mail Code 8701R

Washington, D.C. 20460

Official Business

Penalty for Private Use

300

EPA/600/R-03/071

2000 STAR Recipients (Environmental Indicators in the Estuarine Environment Research Program)

The Great Lakes Environmental

Indicators (GLEI) Consortium

Lead Institution: University of

Minnesota Duluth; Co-Institutions:

University of Minnesota Sea Grant

Program; University of Minnesota

Twin Cities; University of Wisconsin-Green Bay; the University of

Wisconsin-Madison; Cornell

University; John Carroll University;

and the University of Windsor,

Ontario.

The Pacific Estuarine Ecosystem Indicator Research (PEEIR)

Consortium Lead Institution:

University of California; CoInstitutions: University of California-Santa Barbara; University of

Georgia; The Bay Institute; San

Francisco Estuary Institute

Atlantic Coast Environmental

Indicators Consortium (ACE INC)

Lead Institution: University of North

Carolina at Chapel Hill; CoInstitutions: University of Maryland;

University of South Carolina,

Marine Biological Laboratory of

Woods Hole; and the NOAA-NOS

Beaufort Laboratory.

The Atlantic Slope Consortium

Lead Institution: Pennsylvania

State University; Co-Institutions:

Smithsonian Environmental

Research Center; Virginia Institute

of Marine Sciences; East Carolina

University; Environmental Law

Institute, and FTN Associates.

Consortium for Estuarine

Ecoindicator Research for the

Gulf of Mexico (CEER-GOM).

Lead Institution: University Southern Mississippi; Co-Institutions:

Florida State University; University

West Florida; University FloridaGainesville; University Alabama;

Southern Lousiana University; The

University Texas Marine Science

Institute; and the University

Washington.