The Delaware River Basin Collaborative Environmental Monitoring and Research Initiative: Foundation Document

Abstract

In 1998 the U.S. Forest Service, the U.S. Geological Survey, and the National Park Service formed the Collaborative Environmental Monitoring and Research Initiative (CEMRI) to test strategies for integrated environmental monitoring among the agencies. The initiative combined monitoring and research efforts of the participating Federal programs to evaluate health and sustainability of forest and freshwater aquatic systems in the Delaware River Basin. Forest ecosystem health issues addressed by the CEMRI effort include urbanization and forest fragmentation, productivity and carbon sequestration, nitrogen saturation and calcium depletion, vulnerability to exotic insects, and the effects of interactions among these factors. Ongoing monitoring programs were enhanced with supplemental sampling locations and measurements, and models were developed or modified to associate intensive process-level information with extensive landscape-scale information from satellite, aerial, and ground monitoring systems. The CEMRI project illustrates a powerful approach for integrated tracking of environmental conditions, development of models for predicting responses of forest and aquatic processes to perturbations, estimation of future forest conditions, and identification of threats to watershed health and forest sustainability. This paper discusses the development of the CEMRI in the DRB and methods to address environmental issues across multiple spatial and temporal scales.

Modeling forest carbon cycle using long‐term carbon stock field measurement in the Delaware River Basin

“…The Delaware River Basin is characterized by a humid continental climate, with mean annual temperature of 9-12°C and mean annual precipitation of 1143 mm (Kauffman et al 2008). The DRB is located in the eco-zone of deciduous forests and is ecologically diverse, comprised of five physiographic provinces and multiple species assemblages that represent most of the major eastern U.S. forest types (Murdoch et al 2008). Three areas in the DRB were selected as intensive monitoring and research sites for process-level studies in forested landscapes: the Neversink River Basin (NS) in the northern, mostly forested region of the Appalachian Plateau Province; the Delaware Water Gap Area (DEWA) with three small watersheds (Adams Creek, Dingmans Falls, and Little Bushkill) lying in the central Appalachian Plateau Province; and the French Creek Watershed (FC) in the midbasin Piedmont Province (Table 1, Fig.…”

“…A multi‐agency program known as the Collaborative Environmental Monitoring and Research Initiative (CEMRI) has collected long‐term biometric measurement of forest C stocks in the DRB (Murdoch et al. ). Recent re‐measurements and data analysis of the CEMRI sites (Xu et al.…”

“…To use the PnET-CN model effectively in the DRB forest, the model needs to be localized. A multi-agency program known as the Collaborative Environmental Monitoring and Research Initiative (CEMRI) has collected long-term biometric measurement of forest C stocks in the DRB (Murdoch et al 2008). Recent re-measurements and data analysis of the CEMRI sites (Xu et al 2016b) provided a good opportunity to examine the PnET-CN model performance outside its original range in the DRB landscapes along a gradient, and to explore approaches for parameterizing and improving the model using long-term field measurements from multiple sites.…”

Use of soil‐streamwater relationships to assess regional patterns of acidic deposition effects in the northeastern USA

“…Soil samples were collected from 203 forested sites from 2000 to 2006 at U.S. Forest Service (USFS) Forest Inventory and Analysis plots, at USFS plots that were part of an intensive forest health data collection effort in the upper Delaware River Basin and at additional locations by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to increase spatial coverage of the study area. This data collection effort was part of the Delaware River Basin Collaborative Environmental Monitoring and Research Initiative (Murdoch et al ., ). Where multiple soil sampling sites were located within a watershed, efforts were made to locate one pit low in the watershed, one near the ridge top and one near the midpoint between the two.…”

The Biscuit Brook and Neversink Reservoir watersheds: Long‐term investigations of stream chemistry, soil chemistry and aquatic ecology in the Catskill Mountains, New York, USA, 1983–2020

“…Data from Biscuit Brook and the Neversink River are frequently applied in broad regional studies of climate change, landscape disturbance, and ecosystem recovery from decreasing levels of acid rain (Gilliam et al, 2019;Mitchell et al, 2011;Murdoch et al, 2008;Siemion et al, 2018;Vadeboncoeur et al, 2018). A recent study indicated that despite a significant decrease in stream SO (Briggs et al, 2020).…”