Monitoring Ecological Condition in the Western United States : Proceedings of the Fourth Symposium on the Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (EMAP), San Francisco, CA, April 6-8, 1999

The monitoring of point sources by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the states, and the tribes has documented and helped reduce the levels of chemical stressors affecting our ecosystems. With the controls on point sources reducing chemical contamination, new environmental challenges associated with nonpoint sources have emerged. To adequately deal with these new problems, EPA's Office of Research and Development recognized the need to develop an overall under­ standing of the condition of our ecological resources, the trends in their condition, and the stressors affecting these systems on a broad scale. Toward this end, the En­ vironmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (EMAP) was established by EPA and has been strategically developing the scientific tools and techniques to monitor and assess the status and trends of aquatic ecosystems. EMAP scientists have developed new indicators and probability-based de­ signs to fill data gaps in the development of regional-scale assessments of our aquatic resources, as required in the Clean Water Act. We have a scientifically de­ fensible approach that allows: 100 percent coverage of the aquatic resources within broad geographic areas and the formulation of reference 'conditions for es­ tablishing the health of these resources. The use of these indicators and designs were successfully demonstrated in the landscapes, streams, and estuaries of the mid-Atlantic states as part of the Mid-Atlantic Integrated Assessment (MAlA). Front Matter....Pages i-2 EMAP Overview: Objectives, Approaches, and Achievements....Pages 3-8 An Overview of Epa’s Regional Vulnerability Assessment (ReVA) Program....Pages 9-15 Status of Aquatic Bioassessment in U.S. Epa Region IX....Pages 17-30 An Integrated Ecosystem Assessment of the Interior Columbia Basin....Pages 31-40 A Landscape Ecology Assessment of the Tensas River Basin....Pages 41-54 Designing Environmental Databases for Statistical Analyses....Pages 55-68 Emap Design and River Reach File 3 (Rf3) as a Sample Frame in the Central Valley, California....Pages 69-80 Monitoring Air Quality in Mountains: Designing an Effective Network....Pages 81-91 Global Grids From Recursive Diamond Subdivisions of the Surface of an Octahedron or Icosahedron....Pages 93-103 An Automated Technique for Delineating and Characterizing Valley-Bottom Settings....Pages 105-114 Combining Accuracy Assessment of Land-Cover Maps With Environmental Monitoring Programs....Pages 115-126 Mapping Patterns of Human Use and Potential Resource Conflicts on Public Lands....Pages 127-137 Monitoring Ecosystems in the Sierra Nevada: The Conceptual Model Foundation....Pages 139-152 Assessing and Monitoring the Health of Western Rangeland Watersheds....Pages 153-166 Monitoring Australian Rangeland Sites Using Landscape Function Indicators and Ground- and Remote-Based Techniques....Pages 167-178 A Landscape Approach for Detecting and Evaluating Change in a Semi-Arid Environment....Pages 179-195 Application of Ecological Classification and Predictive Vegetation Modeling to Broad-Level Assessments of Ecosystem Health....Pages 197-212 Montane Meadows as Indicators of Environmental Change....Pages 213-225 Assessing Landscape Condition Relative to Water Resources in the Western United States: A Strategic Approach....Pages 227-245 Relations of Habitat-Specific Algal Assemblages to Land Use and Water Chemistry in the Willamette Basin, Oregon....Pages 247-257 Responses of Physical, Chemical, and Biological Indicators of Water Quality to a Gradient of Agricultural Land Use in the Yakima River Basin, Washington....Pages 259-270 A Knowledge-Based Approach to the Assessment Of Watershed Condition....Pages 271-283 Modeling Runoff Response To Land Cover And Rainfall Spatial Variability In Semi-Arid Watersheds....Pages 285-298 Monitoring Inter-Annual Variability Reveals Sources Of Mercury Contamination In Clear Lake, California....Pages 299-310 Macroinvertebrate Assemblages On Woody Debris And Their Relations With Environmental Variables In The Lower Sacramento And San Joaquin River Drainages, California....Pages 311-329 Instream-Flow Needs For Anadromous Salmonids And Lamprey On The Pacific Coast, With Special Reference To The Pacific Southwest....Pages 331-358 Characterizing Small Subbasins: A Case Study From Coastal Oregon....Pages 359-377 Development of the Coastal Intensive Site Network (Cisnet)....Pages 379-390 Spatial Extent Of Sediment Toxicity In U.S. Estuaries And Marine Bays....Pages 391-407 An Overview Of Contaminant-Related Issues Identified By Monitoring In San Francisco Bay....Pages 409-419 Assessment Of Benthic Infaunal Condition On The Mainland Shelf Of Southern California....Pages 421-434 A Regional Survey of the Microbiological Water Quality Along The Shoreline Of The Southern California Bight....Pages 435-447 This volume is the proceedings of a symposium held on April 6-8, 1999, in San Francisco, CA, USA, and sponsored by the US Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (EMAP). EMAP is the primary program of the EPA's Office of Research and Development to advance the science of statistically-based ecosystem monitoring; and establish baseline conditions and trends of the nation's natural resources. The first volume in this series of EMAP-sponsored symposium proceedings addressed 'Monitoring Ecological Condition at Regional Scales' (1998). The current proceedings was the result of the 'EMAP Symposium on Western Ecological Systems' (1999), and presaged the new EMAP Western Pilot Study, which will include one third of the contiguous United States. The information found in these proceedings on the state of monitoring science, and existing monitoring programs undertaken by Federal and State agencies, academic institutions, tribal governments, and environmental protection interest groups helped to establish a starting point for embarking on the EMAP Western Pilot. This volume represents current scientific and management approaches, and the results of monitoring and assessment in the western US ecosystems. The chapter topics include regional assessments, approaches to database design, landscape considerations, water quality and land use, and focuses on watersheds, lakes and rivers, and marine coastal areas. Publication of these proceedings constitutes a sound starting point for the assessment of the ecological resources in the western US and will facilitate collaborative efforts in the development and application of sound approaches to monitoring and assessment of ecological resources in the US and abroad