7 STAR

REPORT

Vol. 3 Issue 1 July 1999 A product of the National Center for Environmental Research and Quality Assurance

ECOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF COASTAL STRESSORS

U.S. EPA Office of Research

and Development’s Science

To Achieve Results (STAR)

Research in Progress

1998 was designated the “Year of the Ocean”

through the efforts of a host of national and international ocean education and conservation organizations and public agencies. In a 1997 study

relevant to technical information needs for U.S.

coastal assessments, a team of federal scientists and

program managers convened by the Federal

Interagency Committee on Environment and

Natural Resources had released the report, "Integrating the Nation's Environmental Monitoring and

Research Networks and Programs: A Proposed

Framework." They recommended creating a

network of index sites that could provide standardized information on coastal ecological condition,

filling a critical gap in the nation's ability to assess

the health of ecosystems.

Responding to this recommendation, in 1998 the

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

(NOAA), and the National Aeronautics and Space

Administration (NASA) established CISNet (the

Coastal Intensive Site Network). This program will

develop a network of coastal monitoring and

research locations. Within EPA, CISNet is a component of the Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program, which conducts research into

monitoring design and implementation to address a

range of ecological resources, including coastal

ecosystems. Within NOAA, CISNet research is

jointly supported by programs including the National Sea Grant College, the National Estuarine

Research Reserve System, and other components of

the National Ocean Service. Within NASA, CISNet

research is a component of the “Mission to Planet

Earth”, and aims at developing remote sensing

capabilities to complement the EPA and NOAA field

work. In many cases CISNet sites are existing

federal or academic research stations.

CISNet supports baseline monitoring of ecological

condition simultaneously with use of the sites as

"outdoor laboratories" for fundamental research to

better understand ecosystem processes and responses to stress. Results eventually will include

better descriptions and understanding of short-term

STAR: Building a scientific foundation for sound environmental decisions
to evaluate the mechanisms of

nitrogen-driven eutrophication.

The Neuse is experiencing nuisance algal blooms, low oxygen

and fish kills. In 1997 it was listed

by the American Rivers Foundation

as one of the nation's most

polluted rivers. It is presumed that

increased nitrogen loads from

human population growth and

various land use changes contribute to the observed impacts, but

there is not a complete understanding of the importance of

various stressors, or of the ways in

which the ecosystem is responding. Nevertheless, in 1997 the

state of North Carolina was driven

by public pressure to take protective measures, and legislation was

passed directing that reductions in

nitrogen loading be achieved, and

that a "nutrient response model"

be developed as a tool for managing future nutrient loading. A

target of 30 percent nitrogen

reduction from point and

nonpoint sources over the next 5

years is being sought. Monitoring

and process studies over this time

period should provide an exceptionally useful setting for observing ecosystem response to decreased nutrient loads. The

researchers are assessing nutrient

inputs from airborne and waterborne pollution, with sources

including urban and suburban

runoff and air emissions, row

crops and livestock. They are

assessing ecological quality

through plankton and water

quality analysis. Detailed hydrographic monitoring and modeling

are used to assess pollutant

transport routes. Results should

be directly relevant to the needs

to verify and evaluate the state’s

overall nutrient response model,

supporting any needed modifications for its continued use for

water quality management in the

future.

Atlantic and Gulf Coast

CISNet Studies

coastal variability, monitoring of

long-term trends, and determining which indicators are most

useful for identifying stress and

responses to stress in coastal

systems across the range of

conditions found in U.S. coastal

regions.

Following is a description of current

STAR CISNet projects. If not

otherwise described, these projects

are supported by EPA funds. Where

some or all funds are from other

federal agencies, that is noted.

The University of North Carolina at

Chapel Hill is building on an

existing twenty-year data base

recording water quality and

ecological conditions of the Neuse

River Estuary. Researchers will

expand on the previous research
I

nvestigators from the

Smithsonian Environmental

Research Center are studying

the Rhode River, a Chesapeake Bay

tributary and an established

CISNet Site, assessing how well

certain aquatic optical properties

serve as indicators of responses to

natural and anthropogenic

stressors. Although stresses

affecting coastal systems vary from

site to site, and there is wide

natural variability in ecological

characteristics, stressors common

to most coastal waters result in

characteristic changes in spectral

attenuation of light underwater.

The spectrum of light penetration

is influenced by suspended

particulate matter, phytoplankton

chlorophyll and colored dissolved

organic matter. These parameters

serve as indicators to integrate

each system's response to a

combination of stressors. This

study will develop the capability to

continuously and cost-effectively

monitor the parameters as they

respond to perturbations on

varying time scales. These will

range from individual storms or

phytoplankton blooms to the

seasonal, decadal or even longer

responses relevant to some natural

ecosystem changes and to

changes in land use and other

human impacts, including environmental management programs. In a related study, the

University of Maryland Center

for Environmental Science is

conducting remote sensing

analyses and field work needed to

establish the Choptank River, a

second tributary of the Chesapeake Bay, as a new CISNet Site.

EPA and NASA are jointly funding

this work, which combines analyses of aerial and satellite imagery

with data from automated buoys

designed to continuously monitor

water chemistry and associated

data with high spatial and temporal resolution. The study overall

focuses on impacts of weather

fluctuations and nutrient inflows.

Specific objectives are to: 1)

assess the role of marshes and

submerged aquatic vegetation in

modulating nutrient fluxes from

land to water; 2) quantify the

effects of changing nutrient loads

on water quality and living resources in this system; 3) document effects of specific nutrient

management actions on nutrient

loads; and (4) evaluate indicators

of condition and ecological

sustainability over a range of

ecological states.

A set of indicators ranging from

molecular to landscape scales are

being simultaneoulsy tested to

monitor estuarine eutrophication

at the the North Inlet-Winyah Bay

National Estuarine Research

Reserve CISNet Site in South

Carolina. The University of

South Carolina is continuing and

enhancing that Site’s long-term

monitoring program to address

basic and applied questions about

eutrophication impacts. Ongoing

data collection will be linked with

new measurements of phytoplankton and bacterial community

structure made possible by

advances in molecular biology and

analytic chemistry. The biotic

change indicators have broad

application and rely on technologies that could be widely adopted.

The community structure data will

be compared to indices of wetland productivity and change

based on landscape-scale remotesensing (satellite) data. The North

Inlet and Winyah Bay are in close

proximity but have extreme

differences in nutrient loading,

nutrient dynamics and productivity, making them ideal natural

laboratories for assessing these

indicator methodologies in a

range of conditions. The goal is to

improve the value of the current

monitoring program by adding

practical new parameters that

demonstrate linkages between

water quality factors and nutrient
uptake, feeding and survival of

various types of bacteria and

plankton.

Delaware's “Inland Bays” ecosystem, including Rehoboth and

Indian River Bays, is an example of

the small, often very shallow

waters between barrier islands and

the mainland that characterize

much of the U.S. Atlantic and Gulf

Coasts. Such small systems are

relatively unstudied. They are

typically subject to serious pollution stress because of their low

water volumes and often high

degrees of

human

use,

often including seasonal tourism

combined with crops, poultry

farming or other livestock. The

University of Delaware is studying nutrient inputs and net

nutrient fluxes out of the Inland

Bays as an indicator of stress

response. They will evaluate

nitrogen and phosphorus dynamics to determine the primary

stressors in the system, their

sources and the magnitudes of

nutrient sinks, including Bay

sediments; They will also develop

conceptual and quantitative

models relating the inputs and

outputs to more easily monitored

forcing factors such as precipitation, temperature, season,

ground-water levels and surfacewater discharges. Sources

assessed will include

surface water inputs,

groundwater and

atmospheric

deposition.

Models developed will be directly

relevant to state needs to plan for

wastewater management needs

and pollution control measures in

these areas as human uses increase in the future.

In the Florida Keys National

Marine Sanctuary, scientists from

the University of California at

Davis’ Bodega Marine Laboratory

are conducting a CISNet research

project evaluating the role of

climate change in altering penetrance of ultraviolet (UV) radiation over coral reefs, potentially

contributing to coral bleaching.

The study involves coordinating

with EPA scientists who specialize

in coral disease identification and

the measurement of underwater

UV radiation. It will incorporate

data from on-going Sanctuary

programs to characterize temperature and overall light conditions.

Climate change may contribute to

coral bleaching because thermal

stratification (ocean water layering) can lead to sea surface

warming and increased UV

penetration, both associated with

bleaching. Remote sensing will be

used to assess underwater UV

levels under stratified and

unstratified conditions. Coral

genetics studies will investigate a

type of DNA damage, the presence of thymine dimers, known to

be specific to UV irradiation,

assessing whether the damage

occurs in bleached corals at the

monitored sites. Controlled lab experiments will

further

re-
river inputs mix with tidal ocean

inflow, but it differs in geological

history, shape and hydrology.

Many estuaries are river mouths

submerged as sea level rose,

creating elongated shallow bays.

In contrast, central Puget Sound is

a deep fjord created by faults and

tetonic activity, bordered by a

network of narrows. The topography results in complex flows that

vary with river input, tides and

wind. Population growth has led

to nutrient enrichment problems,

especially in the narrows. To

monitor the transport regime and

water quality requires hydrologic,

chemical and biological sampling

approaches tailored to this

complex system.

The University of Washington has

received two grants to address

these issues for Puget Sound. The

first, funded by EPA, involves in

situ monitoring of primary productivity and nutrient cycles. To deal

with the rapid flows, a special

profiling instrument system that

measures chemistry, chlorophyll

and flows throughout the water

column will be deployed using a

moored buoy. The associated

NASA-funded study involves

monitoring “water leaving radiance”, an indicator of water color

and clarity, and comparing it with

ground truth images to be collected by the Navy Earth Map

Observer (NEMO) satellite to be

launched in 2000. Current

satellites do not provide good

resolution of water color and

clarity close to shorelines, so they

have not been useful in studying

estuaries or the nearshore ocean.

NEMO instruments have been

designed to reduce this problem.

It is expected that combining

NEMO data with in situ profiling

will allow long-term variations in

nutrient cycling, productivity and

phytoplankton biomass to be

more fully assessed. This will be

coupled with an existing threedimensional model of circulation

in the Sound. The resulting model

West Coast Studies

fine the use of this DNA

“biomarker” as a potential indicator of coral ecosystem health.

 San Pablo Bay is the northern

sub-embayment of the San

Francisco Bay. Its largest freshwater inflows are the combined

Sacramento and San Joaquin

Rivers, which drain the massive

agricultural Central Valley of

California. The freshwater flow is

moderated by tidal ocean inflow .

This fairly small bay receives an

exceptionally large pollutant load,

including sediment loads and

pesticide residues from the Central

Valley together with discharges

from a heavy local concentration

of refineries and other industrial

facilities. Dredging and wetland

restoration projects are further

influencing the ecosystem, with

the restoration projects offering

the potential for improving the

Bay’s health if their design proves

successful. Two grants, one from

EPA and one from NASA, have

been awarded to develop assessments techniques for the Bay.

Under the EPA grant, the University of California at Davis is

designing a monitoring network

to provide advance warning and

long-term tracking of the impacts

of natural changes and human

impacts. They will document

movements and concentrations of

pollutants over a range

of time scales in

an effort

to

design optimization techniques for

selecting monitoring locations and

temporal frequencies at this and

other CISNet Sites. Indicators will

be chosen by testing an extensive

set of chemical, biochemical and

ecological variables to select a

suite of measures that are both

ecologically most meaningful and

cost effective for long-term use.

Results are expected to include an

improved understanding of the

relationships among sediment

bound contaminants and impacts

on the food chain, including fish

and birds. The work will support

decisions concerning pollution

reduction strategies and provide

information for evaluating dredging and wetlands restoration

projects.

Through the NASA grant, the

California State University at

San Francisco is using Advanced

Very High Resolution Radiometry

(AVHRR) and Sea Wide Field

Sensor (SeaWiFS) satellite imagery

to produce images of surface

temperature, pigment concentrations and sediment loads for San

Pablo Bay and other portions of

San Francisco Bay, and to attempt

to produce new kinds of high

temporal resolution data on

plankton productivity. The use of

these techniques for waters very

close to shorelines is a new

technique, requiring development

of site-specific algorithms and

compensation for distortions

created by proximity to land. If

successful, this approach promises

to support use of satellite imagery

for plankton productivity and

associated parameters at CISNet

and other sites where such

assessments are not presently

feasible.

Washington State’s Puget

Sound is a different kind

of estuary than San

Pablo Bay or the

Atlantic Coast estuaries.

Like others, the Sound

is a water body where
of ecosystem dynamics will

provide better understanding of

current eutrophication impacts

and support predictions of impacts of any future increases in

nutrient loads.

The Great Lakes Wisconsin Aquatic

Technology and Environmental

Research (WATER) Institute of the

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee has received a grant to build

on a 50-year nearshore water

quality record for southwestern

Lake Michigan. They will add sites

in harbor,additional nearshore and

open lake habitats. This area is a

drinking water source and an

important perch spawning area.

The long-term data set offers a

unique opportunity to assess the

impacts of stresses that have

greatly increased since the monitoring began, including atmospheric nutrient deposition,

increases in ultraviolet radiation

(UV-B), invasions by exotic species,

and the early increases and

subsequent decreases in water

pollution discharges from municipal and industrial sources. Indicators will include a suite of conventional (non-toxic)

water quality

parameters and biological factors,

together with some toxic metal

analyses. There will also be sitespecific studies of zebra mussel

feeding, and special studies to

establish zooplankton migration patterns. Results are

expected to help develop

innovative methods to

target stressors most

responsible for general

and site-specific impacts

An interdisciplinary

team of University of

Hawaii investigators is

being jointly funded

by NOAA and NASA

to study the linkages

between sources of

stressors in the watershed, and their impacts

on the reef ecosystem.

Historically,stresses were

dominated by urbanization,

including sewage discharge.

In 1978, construction of a

sewage outfall discharging offshore allowed considerable

recovery of the Bay, including reef

health and function. However,

recent data suggest there has

been only an incomplete return of the

Bay to its presewage state. This

study will assess

whether full recovery is

"stalled" due to

present-day pollution

sources in the watershed,

or whether current conditions are simply one of several

possible natural states the

system could exhibit. Results

will be relevant to environmental management options

as local managers attempt to

balance recreational and commercial needs with long-term

health of the reefs and associated

fish and wildlife. Indicators to be

monitored include water chemistry, plankton,sediment and

benthic

biological

conditions,

supported

through the NOAA

grant, coordinated with assessments of coral health based on

remote sensing imagery analyzed

under the NASA grant. Researchers hope to identify the wavelengths or wave bands that can

best be used with lower-cost

multispectral imagery techniques

to classify reef health. Comparing

this information with aquatic

monitoring data will support

recommendations of a set of costeffective in situ and remotely

sensed indicators for use in state

monitoring and the national

CISNET program.

Tropical Pacific

Great Lakes

STAR: Building a scientific foundation for sound environmental decisions
CISNet Workshop Proceedings

Investigators from each of these CISNet research projects participated in a progress review workshop on

February 22 to 23, 1999 in Gulf Breeze, Florida. A report providing abstracts of each project’s work as

presented at that meeting is available on the World Wide Web at http://www.epa.gov/ncerqa. (At this date

use the general link to “publications” to access this report. This internal link may change as the website

expands in future months.) A limited number of bound copies of the report are presently available from EPA’s

Office of Research and Development at the mailing address listed below.

CISNet for the Neuse River

Estuary, NC: A Program for

Evaluating Nitrogen Driven

Eutrophication Associated with

Changing Land Use in a Coastal

Watershed, Richard A. Luettich,

University of North Carolina

Chapel Hill (EPA grant)

CISNet: Coral Bleaching, UV

Effects, and Multiple Stressors in

Florida Keys, Susan L. Anderson,

Regents of the University of

California (EPA grant)

CISNet San Pablo Bay Network of

Environmental Stress Indicators

S. Geoffrey Schladow, The Regents

of the University of California

(EPA grant)

CISNet: Nutrient Inputs as a

Stressor and Net Nutrient Flux

as an Indicator of Stress Response in Delaware’s Inland Bays

Ecosystem, William J. Ullman,

University of Delaware

(EPA grant)

NAT OI NAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRAT OI N

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

Monitoring Ecosystem Condition

and Stress in the San Pablo Bay,

California Region, Raphael

Kudela, San Francisco State

University (NASA grant)

Environmental Monitoring of

Coastal Waters of Southwestern

Lake Michigan, Russell Cuhel,

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

(NOAA grant)

(over)

STAR Research Projects Described in this Report

Note: Only Lead investigators are named. Most projects include multiple investigators
CISNet Molecular to LandscapeScale Monitoring of Estuarine

Eutrophication, James T. Morris,

University of South Carolina

(EPA grant)

Rhode River CISNet: Estuarine

Optical Properties as an Integrative Response to Natural and

Anthropogenic Stressors,

Charles L. Gallegos, Smithsonian

Institution (EPA grant)

CISNet: In Situ and Remote

Monitoring of Productivity and

Nutrient Cycles in Puget Sound

Steven R. Emerson, University of

Washington (EPA grant)

In Situ and Remote Sensing of

Phytoplankton Biomass, Mary

Jane Perry, University of Washington (NASA grant)

CISNet: Linkages Between a

Tropical Watershed and a Reef

Ecosystem, Robert Kinzie III,

University of Hawaii (NOAA

grant)

Hyperspectral Remote Sensing

the Kaneohe Bay Tropical

Estuary, Marlin Atkinson, University of Hawaii (NASA grant)

The Choptank River: A MidChesapeake Bay Index Site for

Evaluating Ecosystem Responses

to Nutrient Management, Thomas C. Malone, University of

Maryland, Center for Environmental Science (EPA grant)

Remote Observations in the

Choptank River Index Site,

Lawrence W. Harding, University

of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (NASA grant)

General Information: The Environmental Protection Agency’s STAR Research Program

Grants described in this report are part of EPA’s Science to Achieve Results (STAR) program, a major research initiative

designed to improve the quality of scientific information available to support environmental decision making. The STAR

program is managed by EPA’s National Center for Environmental Research and Quality Assurance in the Office of Research

and Development (ORD). The program funds approximately 200 new grants every year, with the typical grant lasting three

years. Funding levels vary from $50,000 to over $500,000 per year, with FY 1999 funding level at about $95 million for

grants to individual principal investigators or groups of investigators. Additional STAR funds are provided for a number of

Research Centers specializing in scientific areas of particular concern to EPA, and for a fellowship program supporting graduate students conducting environmental research.

United States

Environmental Protection Agency

Mail Code 8701R

Washington, D.C. 20460

Offical Business

Penalty for Private Use

$300

EPA/600/F-99/012

STAR: Building a scientific foundation for sound environmental decisions