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Implementing a National Lake Survey Decisions To Be Made & Proposal

Implementing a National Lake Survey Decisions To Be Made & Proposal. Steve Paulsen EPA Office of Research & Development NALMS 2005. Objectives. The goal of the Lakes Survey is to address 2 key questions about the quality of the nation’s lakes:

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Implementing a National Lake Survey Decisions To Be Made & Proposal

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  1. Implementing a National Lake SurveyDecisions To Be Made&Proposal Steve Paulsen EPA Office of Research & Development NALMS 2005

  2. Objectives • The goal of the Lakes Survey is to address 2 key questions about the quality of the nation’s lakes: • What percent of the Nation’s lakes are in good condition for key indicators of ecological health and human activities? • What is the relative importance of key stresses? • What changes have occurred over time in lake quality? 2

  3. How to Address the Objectives? • Ecological Health - • Aquatic Life Use? • Biotic Integrity • Stressor Specific Biological Response • Human Health – • Recreational contact? • Drinking water quality? • Tissue edibility? 3

  4. How to Address the Objectives?(continued) • Relative Importance of Stressors – which ones? • Nutrient enrichment • Acidification • Chemical contamination in tissue • Non-native species • Riparian alteration • Bacterial & other pathogen contamination • Others? 4

  5. How to Address the Objectives?(continued) • Focus in this workshop on endpoints and stressors of interest and target population. • Focus in spring workshop on specific indicators, measurements and methods. 5

  6. Example Assessment ObjectivesFlowing Waters Most Disturbed Least Disturbed Biotic Condition Intermediate Disturbance Relative Ranking of Stressors 6

  7. Example Assessment ObjectivesLakes 7

  8. Refining the ObjectivesTarget Population • Target population – what “lakes” should the final assessment to refer to? • What is a lake? • Origin – natural, man-made? • Size – how big or small to be considered a lake? • Need to provide an explicit definition that a field crew can use to decide if the waterbody is part of the “target population” 8

  9. Refining the ObjectivesTarget Population • Special subpopulations of interest? • e.g., lakes associated with different landuses? • Geographic subpopulations? – regional estimates in addition to national estimates • Special interest lakes that might be hand-picked for specific reasons, e.g., reference lakes, lakes with long term records, lakes from previous surveys and existing programs (NES, State/Tribal programs, NAPAP lake studies, Lake Fish Tissue Study ) 9

  10. Lake Numbers by EPA Regions(source – NHD) 282,706 Suggests that to get regional estimates, we will need to “stratify” 10

  11. You’ve heard of the 700 lb. gorilla in the closet… But…

  12. …We’ve got a 1,000 lb brown bear and she’s on the loose!!!

  13. … Alaska! …and that’s just lakes over 20 acres in size!!! 13

  14. Size Classes Clearly anything less than 1 hectare is not reliable 14

  15. Proportion of Lakes by Size Class Waterbodies in the 1-4 hectare class represent 40 -50% of lakes 15

  16. Implementing a National Lake SurveyProposal Steve Paulsen EPA Office of Research & Development NALMS 2005

  17. Proposal • Assessment Objectives • Stressor Comparisons – we know we can get this done • Nutrient enrichment • Acidification • Riparian alteration • Tissue contamination • Condition – • Biological Response to key stressors (e.g., phytoplankton response to nutrients) (we know this can be done) • Biotic Integrity (some evidence that this is doable – relies strongly on “reference sites” 17 (continued)

  18. Proposal(continued) • Lake – definition • Natural and artificial lakes • > 1 hectare in surface area (additional details to separate from wetlands) • Target Population • National and regional resolution (10-15 regions - ecoregions, federal regions and basins) • “Stratify” by lake size, not for reporting purposes, but to ensure inclusion of larger lakes 18 (continued)

  19. Proposal(continued) • Target Population (continued) • Include subset (at least 50) of the 800 lakes from 1970s NES for the purposes of looking at change in that group of lakes • Include set of lakes for “reference lakes” • Work with States and Tribes to have a subset of their high priority lakes sampled for same parameters but don’t count these against the 1,000 lakes • Include a subset (at least 50) of lakes from the Fish Tissue Survey 19 (continued)

  20. Proposal(continued) • Select lakes by end of winter • Use spring workshop to refine indicators, field and laboratory protocols. • Issue funding packages in FY2006 so funding can be in hand to start recon, prepare for field season and to attend training • Field survey in summer of 2007 20

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