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U.S. EPA Office of Research
and Development's Science
To Achieve Results (STAR)
Research in Progress
Vol.2 Issue 2 Mar. 1998 A product of the National Center for Environmental Research and Quality Assurance
ECOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT INDICATORS RESEARCH
One of EPA's major strategic goals is to
restore and maintain the health and biological
diversity of ecosystems, while supporting sus-
tainable economies and communities. How-
ever, our understanding of the interactions
among the living things and habitats that make
up healthy ecosystems is still limited. We lack
adequate indicators and assessment approaches
to characterize ecosystem health at large or
small spatial scales. A good ecological indicator
is a measure of one or more ecological factors
that, in a repeatable and well understood way,
reflects the overall "health", or integrity and
sustainability, of an ecosystem.
Recognizing the need to track status and trends in
the condition of the nation's ecological resources, in the
late 1980s EPA established the Environmental Monitoring
and Assessment Program (EMAP). EMAP supported
research to identify the most scientifically defensible and
cost-effective ecological indicators for ecosystems such as
coastal waters, wetlands, inland waters and forests. In
1995, the National Science and Technology Council's
Committee on the Environment and Natural Resources
(CENR) recommended that federal agencies coordinate
monitoring and research efforts to develop better national
assessments. The CENR placed particular emphasis on
assessment tools that would reflect conditions across
ecosystems, and at various spatial scales. Indicators and
assessment methods developed or refined through STAR
research, together with methods developed by continu-
ing efforts of EMAP and other federal programs, will be
considered in developing future coordinated national
assessments of ecological conditions, as well as for
assessments at regional and watershed scales.
In 1996 and 1997, EPA's external research program,
Science to Achieve Results (the "STAR program") pro-
vided funds
for develop- '
ing ecosys-
tem indica-
tors and
assessment
approaches
to improve
the ability of
EPA, other
agencies and
scientists to
focus
attention
where most
needed in
ecosystem protection and restoration programs, and to
assess progress in programs already underway. The
focus of the 1996 grants was "multiple scale" assessment
needs. The 1997 grants focused additionally on cross-
resource indicators and integrated sampling designs
STAR grants are typically awarded for three years.
Final results of these projects initiated in Fiscal Years 1996
and 1997 will be presented in future reports as findings
are completed and peer reviewed.
One of the major strategic objectives of EPA is to provide the scientific understanding to
measure, model, maintain or restore, at multiple scales, the integrity and sustainability
of ecosystems now and in the future [EPA Strategic Plan, 1997]
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E
COLOGICAL ASSESSMENT RESEARCH IN ERA'S "STAR" PROGRAM
Multiscale Landscape Characteristics, Stresses and Ecological Impacts
To successfully manage large regional ecosystems requires broad assessments of conditions
over areas that may be too expensive to monitor directly. For example, it isn't possible to use
conventional sampling methods to throughly characterize ecosystem health across the many
watersheds that make up large river basins. The University of Minnesota is developing ways
to integrate satellite imagery and aerial photography with conventional ecological data for
such river basins and their watersheds. They will determine the statistical variation of land
alteration factors, soil geology, stream biology and other ecological data to identify indicators
that best reflect natural processes and human impacts across the basin system. This very
comprehensive study will provide cost-effective, statistically sound field and remotely sensed
indicators applicable in many areas. Colorado State University is using satellite imagery to
identify the most useful assessment techniques to trace ecosystem impacts as development has taken
place on the Colorado Plateau from the 1970s to the 1990s. In the Greater
Yellowstone Ecosystem, a team from Iowa State University, the University
of Oklahoma and the University of Kansas will test the use of satellite data
to predict habitat suitability for key terrestrial species. Field data will include
butterfly, bird and plant distributions throughout the montane meadow
I ••jei-, • ,*• *^g«fr ^ ecosystem. The Colorado and Yellowstone studies will enhance the ability to
estimate impacts of habitat alterations on wildlife, and potentially to predict
which species are likely present in a region based on satellite data.
j* ^HK^^r Four STAR grants focus on multiscale indicators of forest ecosystem
-*PP-tS5^r^^^j^ health. The University of Tennessee is using study areas of three sizes: the
150 square-kilometer Oak Ridge National Laboratory Reservation, the 2000
square-kilometer Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and the approxi-
mately 150,000 square-kilometer area of the overall Southern Appalachian
Region. Study factors will include topography, soil characteristics, primary
productivity of land and water plants, and population characteristics of plants
and wildlife such as biomass, species diversity and tree growth rates. The
objective is to provide baselines against which to assess impacts of natural or
human stresses such as droughts, increased nutrient deposition or land
clearing, and to understand how these indicators relate to one another over
/• ^ "i areas of different sizes. The multiscale comparison will help to assess the
v^ ,'* extent to which satellite imagery can be used to infer ecological conditions in
"" ' this region. A related study of baseline relationships between physical and
ecological factors is being performed for the Columbia River basin by a team
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 1998 funding level
at about $80 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.
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led by the University of Colorado.
Here the multi-scale assessment
focuses on topography, climate,
forest management and resulting
impacts on land vegetation and fish
abundances.
The University of New
Hampshire is developing tree health
indicators. Aspects of leaf chemistry
provide indicators of stream and soil
quality, air pollution, climate
conditions and tree productivity.
The leaf indicators will be related to
satellite assessments in an effort to
provide cost-effective regional
assessments that combine remote
sensing with "ground truth" data.
Pennsylvania State University, the
Carnegie Museum of Natural
History and East Stroudsburg
University are developing an index
of whole ecosystem integrity for
forests, based on comparing animal
data to habitat quality. They are
seeking an indicator useful at
intermediate spatial scales, to fill the
gap between stream biology
indicators, used at fine scales, and
the bird abundance data at regional
scales. A potential intermediate scale
indicator is
abundance
and repro-
ductive
success of a
streambank
bird, the
Louisiana
waterthrush.
If the full
suite of
indicators accurately predicts
ecosystem health, it will offer more
accurate and complete status and
trend assessments for the mid-
Atlantic region based on integrated
field and satellite data.
Ecological assessments are
much needed to determine the
condition of much of the areas of
the western U.S. with arid and semi-
arid climates. Satellite sensing is
especially well suited to the vast
rangeland environments. Utah
State University is working in
cooperation with private ranchers in
northern Utah to take advantage of
21 years of Landsat imagery to-
gether with the ranchers' particularly
complete "groundtruth" data base
on ecological conditions. They are
developing procedures for character-
izing changes in ecosystem health
associated with commercial livestock
and big game animal grazing.
Indicators for
Freshwater Ecosystems
The University of Texas has
received a STAR grant to investigate
the use of recent advances in aquatic
bacterial ecology, nutrient chemistry
and algal ecology, to develop
indicators for lakes and reservoirs.
The new microbial indicators are of
particular interest because they are
very sensitive, potentially providing
early
warning of
ecological
stress. This
study will
investigate
whether
these short
term
indicators
adequately
reflect whole-lake and larger regional
responses to stresses due to exces-
sive nutrient enrichment of water-
sheds.
Multiscale
Research
To some extent,different measures and
monitoring designs are needed for
watershed, regional, national and global
assessments. (Watershed-scale
ecological research is supported under a
"Water and Watersheds" program jointly
funded by EPA's STAR program and the
National Science Foundation, to be
summarized in a later "STAR Report".)
While watershed assessments may
include fairly complete monitoring of
stresses and impacts, such direct
assessment is not practical over larger
regions or nationally. But there are
opportunities to harmonize assessments
across spatial scales, by including,
together with field monitoring,
advanced and less expensive assessment
methods based on remote sensing.
Developing statistically sound sampling
approaches for such multiscale assess-
ment is a particular challenge, and
procedures for integrating field data with
remote sensing data for a range of
ecological, hydrologic, geological and
topographic conditions are critically
needed.
There have been worldwide
reports of deformities and local
extinctions of frogs, salamanders and
other amphibians, and much
speculation that pollution, habitat
changes or other human stresses
may be the cause. Amphibians are
believed to be, like the canaries used
in coal mines, particularly sensitive
indicators of ecological stress, in part
because their skin is very permeable
to contaminants. However, there
have been few assessments of
amphibian conditions and stressors
on a regional basis. A STAR grant
has been awarded to a team led by
the University of Illinois, to assess
amphibian conditions across a range
of mid-western habitats. They will
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Ecological Indicators
Research
It is not practical to monitor all compo-
nents of an ecosystem, including the
water, soil, air, plants, animals, microor-
ganisms and their interactions. Conse-
quently, it is important to learn which
ecological indicators are best used as
surrogates or markers of overall ecosys-
tem integrity and sustainability. To meet
this need the STAR program supports
research to develop individual indicators,
or "suites" of indicators, for a range of
ecosystems. Continuing the
"multiscaling" emphasis from 1996,
there is an emphasis on indicators that
can apply across spatial scales. Also
sought are indicators that may reflect
impacts across types of ecosystem (e.g.,
fresh water, coasts, forests and grass-
lands), and that can be used in different
monitoring designs. The following key
questions are considered:
• What indicators characterize and
measure ecological sustainability?
• What indicators best show changes
caused by human impacts?
• How can we deal with the problem of
limited data?
• How can indicators developed in one
place and time be used in other places
and times?
consider associations with potential
stressors, including sources of
pesticides and industrial chemicals,
land-cover changes monitored by
satellites, aquatic vegetation changes
and aquatic habitat quality. If
successful, this may identify amphib-
ian condition factors to serve as early
warning indicators of regional
ecological stress.
Assessment for Coastal
Waters and Estuaries
One of the most widely used
indicators of the health of protected
coastal waters and estuaries is the
extent and condition of aquatic
grasses. Healthy marsh- and
seagrasses provide food, shelter and
nursery areas for waterfowl, fish and
food chain animals. Grasses need
relatively unpolluted, clear water ro
remain healthy and reproduce.
Because they can be mapped using
aerial photos and satellite imagery,
they are a useful indicator of region-
wide ecosystem conditions. But
methods are needed to describe
how the extent and condition of
grasses relate to other indicators of
ecosystem health. Several STAR
grants have been awarded to
develop such methods.
The Florida International
University, University of Southern
Mississippi and the Florida State
Department of Environmental
Protection are studying spatial
scales at which sea grass condition
indicators reflect impacts of natural
and human stresses. The University
of Georgia is developing practical,
inexpensive methods for assessing
health of salt marshes. For the
ecologically unique and threatened
waters of South Florida, including
the Everglades and wetlands to their
north, Duke University and the
Environmental Research Institute
of Michigan are working with the
U.S. Geological Survey and the
National Park Service to use
satellite imagery to map fresh- and
saltwater flows and inundation
patterns. These are affected by land
use changes and the management
of water control structures. Chang-
ing flows have been major contribu-
tors to ecological damages such as
noxious algal blooms and local
disappearances of grasses, fish and
waterfowl. This study will provide
better tools to assess and predict
flow patterns needed to help reduce
future harm to the ecosystem.
In tropical oceans, coral
condition is a key indicator of
ecosystem health. Two STAR grants
focus on ecological assessment for
coral reefs. The University of South
Florida is testing inexpensive
"bioassays" that use microorganisms
called foraminifera to determine
whether coral-damaging pollution is
present in natural waters. They are
also developing an index of marine
ecosystem health using sediment
deposits of foraminifera as pollution
trend markers. In the Pacific, the
University of Guam is developing
standard protocols for assessing
impacts on coral reefs from sewage,
sediment runoff and pesticides.
Impacts identified include serious
reproductive failure of corals,
eventually producing dead reefs that
support little in the way of fish or
other normal reef life. Products of
this research will include the
technical protocols and recommen-
dations for ways to prevent and
mitigate human impacts on healthy
reefs.
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Great Lakes Assessment
Tools and Resource
Management
In the 1970s, Lake Erie was
severely damaged by pollution. In
the 1980s, efforts by state, federal
and international agencies, scientists,
industry and the public resulted in
successful restoration of a healthy
Lake ecosystem. Pollutants from
farms, industry and sewage treat-
ment plants were greatly reduced,
and water quality and fisheries
recovered. However, in the 1990s,
continuing and new problems,
including a marked decline in the
recreational walleye fishery, have
arisen in Lake Erie. Case Western
Reserve University and Johns
Hopkins University are jointly
developing new components for the
Ecosystem Model that supports
decision making under the Lake
Management Plan. The new tools
will improve the ability to explain,
and perhaps decide how to mitigate,
ecological and fishery impacts of
habitat loss, pollution, zebra mussels,
hydrologic modifications and climate
change.
A significant source of toxic
chemicals that cause ecological
damage and require Great Lakes
fisheries to be closed due to human
health risks is wind-blown particles
contaminated with polychlorinated
biphenyls (PCBs). Michigan State
University and the University of
Maryland are measuring the
amount of airborne PCBs contami-
nating fish and food webs, and
comparing this to PCB releases from
lake sediments. This will help to
predict future trends in contamina-
tion offish by PCBs to support
developing strategies to mitigate
PCB impacts.
Assessing Impacts of
Ecosystem Disturbances
Urbanization has profound
impacts on ecosystems. Not only
are terrestrial ecosystems converted
into towns and suburbs, but the
ecological health of streams, rivers,
lakes and coastal waters is harmed
by changed water flows and
pollutant runoff from construction
sites, highways, homes, sewage and
industrial waste. Purdue University
is attempting to develop predictive
indicators for ecological impacts in
areas undergoing urban develop-
ment. Such indicators would be
directly useful in providing urban
and regional planners with practical
tools for projecting, monitoring and
mitigating impacts from various
development options.
Defoliation by gypsy moths
can affect forest ecosystems over
large areas. The University of
Maryland, University of Virginia
and Oregon State University are
developing methods to relate
defoliation damage and other
natural and human factors that
affect forest cover and tree composi-
tion to increases in nitrogen "leak-
age" to surface waters. Nitrogen
related measures might provide
practical indicators of terrestrial and
aquatic impacts due to various types
of forest disturbance in the mid-
Atlantic region.
Find Out More About the STAR Research Program
General information on EPA's STAR research program is available from
the following sources:
ORD's National Center for Environmental Research and Quality Assurance
(NCERQA): Internet website: http://www.epa.gov/ncerqa
Mailing Address:
Office of Research and Development
National Center for Environmental Research and Quality Assurance
Office of the Director (8701 R)
401 M Street, SW
Washington, DC 20460
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STAR Research Projects Described in this Report
1996 STAR Awards
University of Georgia
Health Indicators for Salt Marsh
Estuaries of the South Atlantic Bight
Iowa State University
Modeling Spatial and Temporal
Dynamics of Montane Meadows and
Biodiversity in the Greater
Yellowstone Ecosystem
Florida Department of Environmen-
tal Protection; Florida International
University;
University of Southern Mississippi
Multiscale Assessment of the
Population Status of Thalassia
testudinum A New Approach to
Ecosystem Assessment
Johns Hopkins University, Case
Western Reserve University
Modeling and Multiobjective Risk
Decision Tools for Assessment and
Management of Great Lakes
Ecosystems
University of Tennessee
Use of Multi-Scale Biophysical Models
for Ecological Assessment Applica-
tions in the Southeastern
United States
Environmental Research Institute of
Michigan; Duke University
Monitoring Regional-Scale Hydro-
logic Processes in the South Florida
Ecosystem
Colorado State University
Assessment and Analysis of
Ecosystem Stressors Across Scales
Using Remotely Sensed Imagery
Reducing Uncertainty in Managing
the Colorado Plateau Ecosystem
University of Maryland; Michigan
State University
Trophic Transfer of Atmospheric and
Sedimentary Contaminants Into the
Great Lakes Fisheries
Controls on the Ecosystem Scale
Response Times
1997 STAR Awards
University of Guam
Development of Environmental
Assessment, Mitigation and
Restoration Techniques for Coral
Reefs
University of New Hampshire
Foliar Chemistry as an Indicator of
Forest Ecosystem Status, Primary
Production and Stream Water
Chemistry
Pennsylvania State University,
Carnegie Museum of Natural
History Powdermill Nature
Reserve, East Stroudsburg
University
Using Bioindicators to Develop a
Calibrated Index of Ecological
Integrity for a Forested Headwater
Ecosystem
University of Illinois, University of
Minnesota-Duluth, United States
Geological Survey; Illinois
Natural History Survey; and
McGill University
Environmental Factors That Influence
Amphibian Community Structure
and Health as Indicators of
Ecosystems
University of Texas at Arlington
Miicrobial Indicators of Biological
Integrity and Nutrient Stress for
Aquatic Systems
University of South Florida
Foraminifera as Ecosystem Indicators:
Phase 1- A Marine Benthic
Perturbation Index; Phase 2-
Bioassay Protocols
University of Minnesota
The Development and Evaluation of
Multi scale Mechanistic Indicators of
Regional Landscapes
Purdue Research Foundation
Development and Evaluation of
Ecosystem Indicators for Urbanizing
Midwestern Watersheds
Utah State University
Characterization of the Ecological
Integrity of Commercially Graded
Rangelands Using Remote Sensing
based Indicators
University of Maryland
Assessment of Forest Disturbance in
the mid-Atlantic region: a multi-scale
linkage between terrestrial and
aquatic systems
United States
Environmental Protection Agency
Mail Code 8701R
Washington, D.C. 20460
Offical Business
Penalty for Private Use
$300
EPA/600/F-98/003
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