USGS Partnership Opportunities for 2008 SLICE Proposal

1. USGS Partnership Opportunities for 2008 SLICE Proposal Richard L. Kiesling US Geological Survey MN Water Science Center 2280 Woodale Drive Mounds View, MN 55112

2. 2008 LCCMR Proposal USGS Partnership Opportunities

3. Establish sentinel watersheds and lakes as focal points of long-term monitoring and research Meeting Project Objectives – a role for USGS • Partnerships: USGS partnership through joint funding agreements; two current LCCMR projects • Investment: joint capital investment to build long-term project infrastructure • Data collection networks: real-time, satellite-based data collection with web interface and raw data-feed access (dcode procedure) • National Water Information System (NWIS database) for web access archive access • One-time investment: mobile research data platforms with option for expansion and modification of equipment without changing network structure or previous investment • Plugging the super-sentinel lakes into web databases with real-time data streaming – available immediately

4. Establish sentinel watersheds and lakes as focal points of long-term monitoring and research Meeting Project Objectives – a role for USGS Outcome: a network of sentinel sites where in kind data collection efforts by multiple interdisciplinary partners will achieve strong inference into complex ecological processes, achieve mutually shared objectives, and will be a highly efficient use of natural resource funds. Examples: USGS NRP Research Station at Shingobee lake, MN; Lake Waco, TX, met tower installation

5. Potential USGS Collaborations • Project data management – trouble-shooting data networks, data access, new sensor installation in network, web access • Water quality & Climate monitoring buoys • inexpensive thermistor buoys • Cost-effective mobile data platforms • continuous, automated data collection • simultaneous transmission of 10 data sensors with expansion to 20 parameters possible • Automated continuous flow and water quality parameters with gaging stations at inlets - gage installation, rating-curve development, discharge record computation

7. Continuous temperature data collection using temperature-logger chains at five fixed locations

9. Continuous meteorological data collection from a moored data platform

11. Continuous water quality data collection from a moored data platform

12. Lake Houston Monitoring Program Continuous water quality monitoring raft on Lake Houston

15. Next slide May 23 – June 23, 2007Preliminary Dissolved Oxygen Data

16. June 6 - June 16, 2007Preliminary Dissolved Oxygen Data

17. Next slide May 23 – June 23, 2007Preliminary Dissolved Oxygen and Water Temperature Data

18. June 6 – June 16, 2007Preliminary Dissolved Oxygen and Water Temperature Data

19. Result 2: Reconstruction of past water quality and habitat conditions in the sentinel lakes and responses to major environmental events in history Objectives: reconstruction of sedimentation, nutrients, aquatic plants, and oxygen • USGS – eutrophication and urban development history from sediment core analysis of contaminants, geochemistry (including stable isotope analysis), and fossil algal pigments • USGS - Occurrence of other waste-water compounds and emerging contaminants in lake sediments • USGS - large volume suspended sediment sampling coupled with continuous turbidity monitoring to track contaminant plumes • USGS – groundwater inflow and modeling

20. Lake Travis Sediment Flux Oct 2006

24. Result 3: Linked watershed-lake biophysical models to forecast future water quality Objectives: Coarse watershed and lake modeling in all 24 lakes (PCA – LAP program) Mechanistic watershed models to estimate external loading • USGS – application of HSPF watershed model coupled with mechanistic water quality model (e.g, CE-QUAL-W2 model) 3D lake modeling to estimate internal P-recycling in Super sentinels • CE-QUAL-W2 hydro-dynamic model with lateral averaging • Realistic food-web component for algal dynamics and zooplankton grazing • Output adaptable for bio-energetics models • Use of ambient phytoplankton bioassays to document limiting nutrient and Monod growth function

25. Result 3: Linked Models Outcomes • Outcomes: • scenarios on Temperature, DO, and Lake Productivity (i.e., fish habitat) • what-if scenarios linking water quality with fish habitat conditions given different climate change and land-use scenarios • Products: refined models, final reports, and journal articles for super sentinel lakes

26. Limiting Nutrient Bioassays • Assess phytoplankton nutrient-dependant growth rates at each of the sites sampled using growth potential bioassays • Monthly samples, four replicates per treatment • Control, +N, +P, and +NP treatments • Seasonal and spatial patterns in P and N limitation • Significant loss rates due to grazing by zooplankton

27. Lake Travis Bioassays: 12302 (Dam)

29. Result 4: Identification of a set of habitat and fish indicators sensitive to human-caused disturbances to serve as an early warning sign of lake ecosystem stress. Objectives • Repeated sampling of several habitat and fish indicators • Evaluation of short-term variability and response to disturbance • Development and refinement of habitat mapping protocols (e.g., CWH, emergents, non-game fish and wildlife mapping, GIS overlays Outcome: Operational management plan with protocols and schedules for future evaluation of indicators in sentinel and a larger set of random lakes

30. Dr. Richard Kiesling US Geological Survey 2280 Woodale Drive Mounds View, MN 55112 kiesling@usgs.gov (763) 783-31831 Contact Information

31. Lake Travis Bioassays: 12315 (Carpenter Bend)