Regional Monitoring Networks (RMNs) to Detect Changing
Baselines in Freshwater Wadeable Streams
SEPA
www. e pa. gov/resea rc h
science in ACTION
INNOVATIVE RESEARCH FOR A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE
General Information
The United States Environmental Protection Agency
(U.S. EPA) is working with its regional offices, states,
tribes, and other entities to establish Regional
Monitoring Networks (RMNs). The RMNs will help
EPA and their partners collect current, baseline
biological, thermal, and hydrologic data from
freshwater wadeable streams. This information will
be used to help quantify and detect long-term
changes in conditions of high-quality streams.
Detection of such changes can inform water quality
criteria and indicator development, as well as
responses to climate change effects. This EPA report
provides technical information describing how
current RMNs have been developed, including the
selection of sites for monitoring and expectations for
data collection. The report also provides examples of
how RMN data can be used and analyzed to help
inform decision-making and scientific research.
RMNs have been established in the Northeast, Mid-
Atlantic, and Southeast, and efforts are underway to
expand RMNs into other regions.
Why are RMNs Needed?
The lack of continuous water quality data is an
impediment to the identification and analyses of
long-term trends in biological, thermal, and
hydrologic conditions of minimally disturbed,
unregulated freshwater wadeable streams.
Information gathered by RMNs builds upon current
efforts to collect biological data and assess the
condition of freshwater streams. RMNs supplement
current data with the use of sensors to collect
continuous stream temperature and flow data. This
information will help facilitate the collection of
comparable water quality data that can be more
• Primary RMN sites (4/2/2014)
	j Sampling underway
Development in progress
Figure 1. Sampling has been underway at the Northeast, Mid-atlantic and Southeast RMNs
for several years. RMNs are currently being developed in the Midwest.
efficiently used regionally. Pooling these kinds of
The data can then be used for many
purposes, including:
>	Monitoring baseline condition of high quality
waters to detect trends over time
>	Supplementing Clean Water Act (CWA)
programs and initiatives by:
o Defining natural conditions and quantifying
natural variability
o Informing criteria refinement or
development
o Developing biological indicators for
protection planning
>	Gaining a better understanding of relationships
between biological, thermal, and hydrologic data
>	Gaining a better understanding of ecosystem
responses and recovery from extreme weather
events
>	Gaining insights into effects of regional
phenomena such as drought, pollutant/nutrient
deposition and riparian forest infestations on
aquatic ecosystems and bioassessment programs.

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How can RMN data be used to support
future decision-making?
RMN data can be used for many purposes. State and
regional biomonitoring programs can use RMN data
to supplement water quality programs and
initiatives, which are highlighted below:
>	Monitoring high quality waters - Detecting
trends in freshwater wadeable streams to help
inform protection planning priorities as
required by the Clean Water Act.
>	Defining natural conditions and quantifying
natural variability - Understanding and
quantifying how natural variations affect the
aquatic ecosystems can enable state monitoring
systems to better separate natural variations
from human-induced changes.
>	Informing criteria refinement or development
- Improving understanding of hydrologic
processes, such as changes in temperature and
flow, can help to inform the development of
regional standards and management strategies.
>	Developing biological indicators for
protection planning - Increasing accuracy of
designations used in the protection planning
process to better identify and protect biological
life in cold water streams.
How can the data collected by the
RMNs help to better understand and
respond to a changing climate?
Climate change requires managers to consider
increasingly complex and uncertain futures. As a
result, RMN data take on added importance by
providing decision makers with information that can
be used to understand the current conditions of
freshwater wadeable streams, as well as information
to respond to the effects of a changing climate in the
future. Examples of how RMN data can be used are
highlighted below.
>	Monitoring changes in spatial distributions of
biological indicators (e.g., aquatic species) and
evaluating whether these changes are associated
with changing temperature and flow conditions.
>	Informing climate change vulnerability
assessments and developing hypotheses about
which organisms, community types, watersheds
or stream classes are more likely to be affected
by climate change. If certain types of streams
show greater resilience to climate change effects
than others, this information could inform
adaptation strategies and protection planning.
>	Developing statistical models to predict climate
change effects on stream temperature and flow
to project future changes in stream conditions.
>	Providing insights on how organisms respond
to and recover from extreme weather events,
such as droughts and floods. If an extreme event
occurs at a RMN site, the data collected prior to
the event can be used to characterize pre-event
conditions, and the continuous data will capture
the magnitude, frequency and duration of the
event. This will allow impacts to be evaluated
through comparative analyses on the pre- and
post-event data.
Contact:
Britta Bierwagen, Ph.D.
I > i c r w a uc n. b r i L L a c p a. uo v
Office of Research and Development
National Center for Environmental Assessment
Air, Climate, and Energy Research Program
Full report available at:
http: //cfbub. epa. gov/ncea/risk/recordisplav ,cfm?deid
=307973

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