Regional monitoring programs in the United States: Synthesis of four case studies from Pacific, Atlantic, and Gulf Coasts

Schiff, Kenneth; Trowbridge, Philip; Sherwood, Edward T.; Tango, Peter J.; Batiuk, Richard A.

doi:10.1016/j.rsma.2015.11.007

Cited by 12 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…This work highlights Chesapeake Bay as an example where a long-term, collaborative monitoring network has allowed for the development, refinement, and implementation of analyses to assess the ecological status of a complex ecosystem. This work can serve as a model for other coastal and inland systems, either for comparison with existing assessments, or for development of similar monitoring and assessment frameworks (Borja et al, 2008;Bricker et al, 2008;Patricio et al, 2016;Schiff et al, 2016;Trowbridge et al, 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chesapeake Bay's water quality condition has been recovering: Insights from a multimetric indicator assessment of thirty years of tidal monitoring data

Zhang

Murphy

Tian

et al. 2018

Science of The Total Environment

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To protect the aquatic living resources of Chesapeake Bay, the Chesapeake Bay Program partnership has developed guidance for state water quality standards, which include ambient water quality criteria to protect designated uses (DUs), and associated assessment procedures for dissolved oxygen (DO), water clarity/underwater bay grasses, and chlorophyll-a. For measuring progress toward meeting the respective states' water quality standards, a multimetric attainment indicator approach was developed to estimate combined standards attainment. We applied this approach to three decades of monitoring data of DO, water clarity/underwater bay grasses, and chlorophyll-a data on annually updated moving 3-year periods to track the progress in all 92 management segments of tidal waters in Chesapeake Bay. In 2014-2016, 40% of tidal water segment-DU-criterion combinations in the Bay (n = 291) are estimated to meet thresholds for attainment of their water quality criteria. This index score marks the best 3-year status in the entire record. Since 1985-1987, the indicator has followed a nonlinear trajectory, consistent with impacts from extreme weather events and subsequent recoveries. Over the period of record (1985-2016), the indicator exhibited a positive and statistically significant trend (p < 0.05), indicating that the Bay has been recovering since 1985. Patterns of attainment of individual DUs are variable, but improvements in open water DO, deep channel DO, and water clarity/submerged aquatic vegetation have combined to drive the improvement in the Baywide indicator in 2014-2016 relative to its long-term median. Finally, the improvement in estimated Baywide attainment was statistically linked to the decline of total nitrogen, indicating responsiveness of attainment status to the reduction of nutrient load through various management actions since at least the 1980s.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chesapeake Bay's water quality condition has been recovering: Insights from a multimetric indicator assessment of thirty years of tidal monitoring data

Zhang

Murphy

Tian

et al. 2018

Science of The Total Environment

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“…These results provide essential information to the Bay management and research community for (1) understanding the conditions and dynamics of the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem and (2) further assessing the effectiveness of management initiatives aimed toward Bay restoration under the influences of climatic and hydrological variability. This work also features Chesapeake Bay as a prime example where long-term monitoring network and science-based criterion assessment methods can be combined to evaluate the status and trends of complex ecosystems, which might be relevant to other coastal and inland ecosystems that are facing ecological degradation (Borja et al, 2008; Bricker et al, 2008; Patricio et al, 2016; Schiff et al, 2016; Sherwood et al, 2016; Trowbridge et al, 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chesapeake Bay Dissolved Oxygen Criterion Attainment Deficit: Three Decades of Temporal and Spatial Patterns

et al. 2018

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Low dissolved oxygen (DO) conditions are a recurring issue in waters of Chesapeake Bay, with detrimental effects on aquatic living resources. The Chesapeake Bay Program partnership has developed criteria guidance supporting the definition of state water quality standards and associated assessment procedures for DO and other parameters, which provides a binary classification of attainment or impairment. Evaluating time series of these two outcomes alone, however, provides limited information on water quality change over time or space. Here we introduce an extension of the existing Chesapeake Bay water quality criterion assessment framework to quantify the amount of impairment shown by space-time exceedance of DO criterion (“attainment deficit”) for a specific tidal management unit (i.e., segment). We demonstrate the usefulness of this extended framework by applying it to Bay segments for each 3-year assessment period between 1985 and 2016. In general, the attainment deficit for the most recent period assessed (i.e., 2014–2016) is considerably worse for deep channel (DC; n = 10) segments than open water (OW; n = 92) and deep water (DW; n = 18) segments. Most subgroups - classified by designated uses, salinity zones, or tidal systems - show better (or similar) attainment status in 2014–2016 than their initial status (1985–1987). Some significant temporal trends (p < 0.1) were detected, presenting evidence on the recovery for portions of Chesapeake Bay with respect to DO criterion attainment. Significant, improving trends were observed in seven OW segments, four DW segments, and one DC segment over the 30 3-year assessment periods (1985–2016). Likewise, significant, improving trends were observed in 15 OW, five DW, and four DC segments over the recent 15 assessment periods (2000–2016). Subgroups showed mixed trends, with the Patuxent, Nanticoke, and Choptank Rivers experiencing significant, improving short-term (2000–2016) trends while Elizabeth experiencing a significant, degrading short-term trend. The general lack of significantly improving trends across the Bay suggests that further actions will be necessary to achieve full attainment of DO criterion. Insights revealed in this work are critical for understanding the dynamics of the Bay ecosystem and for further assessing the effectiveness of management initiatives aimed toward Bay restoration.

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“…Ongoing local support for this program has remained since 1972, and other local, municipal governments have created complementary water quality monitoring programs, all of which now support water quality assessments and management efforts spear-headed by the Tampa Bay Estuary Program (Sherwood et al 2016). Some of the key attributes supporting the maintenance of this long-term monitoring program are summarized in Schiff et al (2016) and Gross and Hagy (2017).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In addition to these challenges, the difficulties of rigorously monitoring and understanding an ecosystem’s condition and restoration trajectory at various spatial and temporal scales can further constrain evaluations of restoration success (Hobbs and Harris 2001; Liang et al 2019). The lack of long-term environmental monitoring is a primary impediment to understanding pre- versus post- restoration change (Schiff et al 2016) and also impedes recognition of any coastal ecosystem improvements derived from prolonged management, policy and restoration activities. Long-term coastal monitoring programs can facilitate a broader sense of how management, policy and restoration activities affect coastal ecosystem quality (Borja et al 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessment of the Cumulative Effects of Restoration Activities on Water Quality in Tampa Bay, Florida

Beck

Sherwood

Henkel³

et al. 2019

Estuaries and Coasts

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Habitat and water quality restoration projects are commonly used to enhance coastal resources or mitigate the negative impacts of water quality stressors. Significant resources have been expended for restoration projects, yet much less attention has focused on evaluating broad regional outcomes beyond site-specific assessments. This study presents an empirical framework to evaluate multiple datasets in the Tampa Bay area (Florida, USA) to identify (1) the types of restoration projects that have produced the greatest improvements in water quality and (2) time frames over which different projects may produce water quality benefits. Information on the location and date of completion of 887 restoration projects from 1971 to 2017 were spatially and temporally matched with water quality records at each of the 45 long-term monitoring stations in Tampa Bay. The underlying assumption was that the developed framework could identify differences in water quality changes between types of restoration projects based on aggregate estimates of chlorophyll-a concentrations before and after the completion of one to many projects. Water infrastructure projects to control point source nutrient loading into the Bay were associated with the highest likelihood of chlorophylla reduction, particularly for projects occurring prior to 1995. Habitat restoration projects were also associated with reductions in chlorophyll-a, although the likelihood of reductions from the cumulative effects of these projects were less than those from infrastructure improvements alone. The framework is sufficiently flexible for application to different spatiotemporal contexts and could be used to develop reasonable expectations for implementation of future water quality restoration activities throughout the Gulf of Mexico.

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Regional monitoring programs in the United States: Synthesis of four case studies from Pacific, Atlantic, and Gulf Coasts

Cited by 12 publications

References 20 publications

Chesapeake Bay's water quality condition has been recovering: Insights from a multimetric indicator assessment of thirty years of tidal monitoring data

Chesapeake Bay's water quality condition has been recovering: Insights from a multimetric indicator assessment of thirty years of tidal monitoring data

Chesapeake Bay Dissolved Oxygen Criterion Attainment Deficit: Three Decades of Temporal and Spatial Patterns

Assessment of the Cumulative Effects of Restoration Activities on Water Quality in Tampa Bay, Florida

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