Monitoring ecological condition at regional scales : proceedings of the Third Symposium on the Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (EMAP), Albany, NY, U.S.A., 8-11 April, 1997

Front Matter....Pages i-x Environmental Monitoring and Research Initiative: A Priority Activity for the Committee on Environmental and Natural Resources....Pages 3-14 Environmental Data in Decision Making in EPA Regional Offices....Pages 15-21 Development and Validation of Ecological Indicators: An ORD Approach....Pages 23-28 A Zooplankton-N:P-Ratio Indicator for Lakes....Pages 29-51 Implications of Seasonal and Regional Abundance Patterns of Daphnia on Surface Water Monitoring and Assessment....Pages 53-60 The Role of Biological Indicators in a State Water Quality Management Process....Pages 61-88 Maryland Biological Stream Survey: Development of a Fish Index of Biotic Integrity....Pages 89-106 Diatom Indicators of Stream and Wetland Stressors in a Risk Management Framework....Pages 107-118 The Occurrence and Impact of Sedimentation in Central Pennsylvania Wetlands....Pages 119-130 Towards a Regional Index of Biological Integrity: The Example of Forested Riparian Ecosystems....Pages 131-143 A Bird Community Index of Biotic Integrity for the Mid-Atlantic Highlands....Pages 145-156 Acid Runoff Caused Fish Loss as an Early Warning of Forest Decline....Pages 157-162 Forest Integrity at Anthropogenic Edges: Air Pollution Disrupts Bioindicators....Pages 163-169 Common Patterns of Ecosystem Breakdown under Stress....Pages 171-178 Vegetation, Soil, and Animal Indicators of Rangeland Health....Pages 179-200 Monitoring Changes in Stressed Ecosystems Using Spatial Patterns of Ant Communities....Pages 201-210 Parasites of Fish as Indicators of Environmental Stress....Pages 211-232 Relating Benthic Infaunal Community Structure to Environmental Variables in Estuaries Using Nonmetric Multidimensional Scaling and Similarity Analysis....Pages 233-246 Seed Clam Growth: An Alternative Sediment Bioassay Developed During Emap in the Carolinian Province....Pages 247-257 Benthic Biological Processes and E H as a Basis for a Benthic Index....Pages 259-268 State of the Estuaries in the Mid-Atlantic Region of the United States....Pages 269-284 A Framework for a Delaware Inland Bays Environmental Classification....Pages 285-298 Maryland Biological Stream Survey: A State Agency Program to Assess the Impact of Anthropogenic Stresses on Stream Habitat Quality and Biota....Pages 299-316 Assessment of the Condition of Agricultural Lands in Five Mid-Atlantic States....Pages 317-324 An Interactive, Spatial Inventory of Environmental Data in the Mid-Atlantic Region....Pages 325-329 Sediment Quality of Estuaries in the Southeastern U.S.....Pages 331-343 Evaluation of R-EMAP Techniques for the Measurement of Ecological Integrity of Streams in Washington State’s Coast Range Ecoregion....Pages 345-355 Site Access and Sample Frame Issues for R-EMAP Central Valley, California, Stream Assessment....Pages 357-367 Linking Monitoring and Effects Research: EMAP’s Intensive Site Network Program....Pages 369-380 Determining the Causes of Benthic Condition....Pages 381-397 A Regional Analysis of Lake Acidification Trends for the Northeastern U.S., 1982-1994....Pages 399-413 Regional Land Cover Characterization Using Landsat Thematic Mapper Data and Ancillary Data Sources....Pages 415-428 Managing Scientific Data: The EMAP Approach....Pages 429-440 Exploring Environmental Data in a Highly Immersive Virtual Reality Environment....Pages 441-450 Prototyping a Vision for Inter-Agency Terrestrial Inventory and Monitoring: A Statistical Perspective....Pages 451-463 Genetic Patterns as a Tool for Monitoring and Assessment of Environmental Impacts: The Example of Genetic Ecotoxicology....Pages 465-479 Preliminary Studies on the Population Genetics of the Central Stoneroller ( Campostoma anomalum ) from the Great Miami River Basin, Ohio....Pages 481-495 Genetic Impact of Low-Dose Radiation on Human and Non-Human Biota in Chernobyl, Ukraine....Pages 497-506 Human Carrying Capacity as an Indicator of Regional Sustainability....Pages 507-509 The Ecological Footprint: An Indicator of Progress toward Regional Sustainability....Pages 511-529 Emergy Analysis of Human Carrying Capacity and Regional Sustainability: An Example Using the State of Maine....Pages 531-569 Resource Use Rates and Efficiency as Indicators of Regional Sustainability: An Examination of Five Countries....Pages 571-593 Canada’s Ecological Monitoring and Assessment Network: Where we are at and where we are going....Pages 595-603 The Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program was created by EPA to develop the capability for tracking the changing conditions of our natural resources and to give environmental policy the advantages ofa sound scientific understanding of trends. Former EPA Administrators recognized early that contemporary monitoring programs could not even quantify simple unknowns like the number of lakes suffering from acid rain, let along determine if national control policies were benefiting these lakes. Today, adding to acidification impacts are truly complex problems such as determining the effects of climate change, of increases in ultraviolet light, toxic chemicals, eutrophication and critical habitat loss. Also today, the Government Performance and Results Act seeks to have agencies develop performance standards based on results rather than simply on levels of programmatic activities. The charge to EMAP of ecosystems is, therefore, the same today as it was a with respect to measuring the condition decade ago. We welcome the increasing urgency for sound scientific monitoring methods and data by efforts to protect and improve the environment. Systematic nationwide monitoring of natural resources is more than anyone program can accomplish, however. In an era of declining budgets, it is crucial that monitoring programs at all levels of government coordinate and share environmental data. EMAP resources are dwarfed by the more than $500 million spent on federal monitoring activities each year. This volume presents the proceedings of a symposium on the Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (EMAP), held in Albany, NY, USA, in April, 1997. A research program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, EMAP has been advancing the state of the science in ecological indicator development, statistical sampling design, landscape characterization, and other tools of environmental monitoring since the program's inception in the late 1980s. EMAP's goal is to develop and demonstrate the science necessary to monitor status and trends in the condition of ecological resources at multiple spatial and temporal scales. These proceedings feature the latest research on ecological indicators, plus results from seven years of EMAP monitoring in estuarine, forest, and freshwater ecosystems. Contributors to this volume have worked closely with EMAP or are conducting related research within U.S. federal and state environmental agencies and academic institutions. Chapter topics include causal relationships, landscape ecology, carrying capacity and sustainability, statistical issues in large-scale surveys, and approaches to integrating data from multiple scales and media. Publication of these proceedings is intended to facilitate the development and application of techniques for ecologically based assessments of environmental condition in the US and abroad