60 http://ian.umces.edu/seminarseries/ A monthly seminar series in Annapolis, providing concise, thought-provoking ideas relating to Chesapeake Bay science and management. en-us ℗ & © Integration and Application Network Fostering interaction between Chesapeake research, monitoring and management communities Integration and Application Network A monthly seminar series in Annapolis, providing concise, thought-provoking ideas relating to Chesapeake Bay science and management. Integration and Application Network ian@umces.edu no W. Dean Hively IAN Seminar Series - May 2013 Winter cover crops can play a critical role in conserving nutrients and sediment, but their performance is variable, depending on the land, farming techniques, and the weather. What makes a successful cover crop? For the past six years Dean has worked in collaboration with the USDA-ARS and the Maryland Department of Agriculture to develop methods for using satellite remote sensing to evaluate the performance of winter cover crops. At this IAN lunchtime seminar, Dean will present some observations from the Eastern Shore, and will discuss the role of cover crops in sustainable agricultural systems. http://ian.umces.edu Thu, 02 May 2013 10:24:25 -0400 0:16:38 environment, ecology, management, restoration, research, monitoring, IAN Mark S. Castro IAN Seminar Series - March 2013 This presentation is on atmospheric mercury deposition trends followed by a group discussion. http://ian.umces.edu Fri, 22 Mar 2013 16:03:14 -0400 0:15:36 environment, ecology, management, restoration, research, monitoring, IAN Anne Armstrong IAN Seminar Series - February 2013 Anne’s TogetherGreen fellowship project called SPARK Creek-Watchers: SparkingWatershed Conservation in Accomack County Families - is a partnership with a local, out-door family based program called SPARK. The program, run by Anne, includes basic monitoring and clean-up efforts in two Chesapeake Bay tidal tributaries in Virginia. By engaging Accomack County families in environmental education, the program hopes to have far reaching effects in the community that will reveal the connections between a healthy Bay watershed and healthy local industry, residences, and recreational opportunities.  http://ian.umces.edu Wed, 06 Feb 2013 16:14:04 -0500 0:13:22 environment, ecology, management, restoration, research, monitoring, IAN Ben Sherrouse IAN Seminar Series - February 2013 Social Values for Ecosystem Service (SolVES) is a GIS tool that can be used to incorporate non-monetary social value information into the spatial context of ecosystem services assessment. SolVES is designed to assess, map, and quantify social values for ecosystems, like aesthetics, biodiversity, and recreation. Social values are analyzed for various stakeholder groups as distinguished by their attitudes and preferences regarding public uses. SolVES derives a quantitative, 10-point, social-values metric, the Value Index, from a combination of spatial and nonspatial responses to public attitude and preference surveys and calculates metrics characterizing the underlying environment. http://ian.umces.edu Tue, 05 Feb 2013 14:37:41 -0500 0:16:19 environment, ecology, management, restoration, research, monitoring, IAN Kacey Wetzel IAN Seminar Series - January 2013 Social maketing is often aimed for behavior change and usually incorporates the following goals: increasing awareness, measurably increasing knowledge, and changing behavior patterns. Three case studies are presented that explore attitudes, information intensive workshops, and economic self-interest for social marketing strategies. Successful social marketing strategies include doing a background analysis (for example, SWOT); selecting an appropriate target audience; choosing a behavior pattern to target within a community through ROI and baseline measurement; finding appropriate sampling methods; and developing a strategy using behavior change tools. http://ian.umces.edu Wed, 30 Jan 2013 09:52:25 -0500 0:21:47 environment, ecology, management, restoration, research, monitoring, IAN Elena Takaki IAN Seminar Series - January 2013 FieldScope is the online digital mapping tool that does not require software to install, only internet access. It's designed for student use in citizen science capability - for example students can enter regular Acquaint data, visualize patterns, do some data analysis, and graph the data. FieldScope can be used as a fine communication tool and as a means to promote community involvement through sharing data and encouraging interaction. http://ian.umces.edu Wed, 16 Jan 2013 12:34:31 -0500 0:14:44 environment, ecology, management, restoration, research, monitoring, IAN Michael Douglas IAN Seminar Series - January 2013 Australia’s wet-dry tropics cover an area about the size of California and Texas but are occupied by a population about the size of Hartford County. The region contains the world’s largest area of good condition tropical savanna and the 55 river systems that flow through the region account for about half of Australia’s total river flows. All but two of these rivers flow freely to the sea, unimpeded by dams. These rich and productive river systems are the lifeblood of the region, providing immense social, cultural and economic benefits. They are internationally recognized for their conservation values and most of the region’s industries—grazing, mining, fishing and tourism–rely on clean water and healthy river systems. However, these river systems are under threat from increasing water resource development, land use intensification and sea-level rise. The Tropical Rivers and Coastal Knowledge Research Hub (TRaCK) was formed to improve the scientific knowledge to help managers respond to these threats. TRaCK is a consortium of more than 80 researchers from the ecological, economic and social sciences and over the past 5 years TRaCK’s research has greatly increased our understanding of Australia’s tropical rivers and the ecosystem processes that underpin them. TRaCK has forged new partnerships with governmentpolicy makers, Aboriginal land owners and natural resource management groups. This presentation will describe how TRaCK’s research findings are helping managers to examine the tradeoffs among different and often competing values in catchment management and planning.  http://ian.umces.edu Tue, 08 Jan 2013 19:41:43 -0500 0:17:56 environment, ecology, management, restoration, research, monitoring, IAN Steve Raabe IAN Seminar Series - June 2012 At OpinionWorks, public opinion is polled for a variety of organizations. As it relates to environmental reporting, polling is used to create the best possible way to present environmental findings. Steve Raabe conducted a study using two focus groups on how an environmental report card should be presented. It was found that the general public gravitated towards a clear grading system, trend information, and intriguing photographs. He also includes things to avoid when reporting and how the concerned public feels about the importance of water quality issues. http://ian.umces.edu Wed, 27 Jun 2012 10:34:16 -0400 0:16:44 environment, ecology, management, restoration, research, monitoring, IAN Jamie Brunkow IAN Seminar Series - February 2012 The Sassafras river is a small tributary of the Chesapeake Bay. The Sassafras river association is responsible for preserving the water quality of the estuary. This involves measuring the water quality, reporting the findings, and making active changes concerning surrounding farmers, fishermen, and local business owners. In summary, water quality was found to increase farther downstream. Also, there are high chlorophyll and PH levels throughout the year. http://ian.umces.edu Fri, 10 Feb 2012 16:27:26 -0500 0:20:58 environment, ecology, management, restoration, research, monitoring, IAN Dr Heath Kelsey IAN Seminar Series - January 2012 The Great Barrier Reef is an extremely important resource. It is home to approximately 2900 coral reef systems, sea grass meadows, and mangroves. In an effort to improve water quality of the Great Barrier Reef, the Queensland government put together the Paddock to Reef Program, which helps restrain the amount of sediment that is disposed into the lagoon by industry. The program devised an ABCD framework to measure acceptable land management practices. A Great Barrier Reef Report Card was made, reporting on the water quality by region using this measurement. It was found that the Great Barrier Reef is in moderate condition overall, but it varies from region to region. http://ian.umces.edu Tue, 03 Jan 2012 14:38:01 -0500 0:13:37 environment, ecology, management, restoration, research, monitoring, IAN Ron Melcer IAN Seminar Series - November 2011 The Chester is a river on the northern part of the Chesapeake Bay. It has twenty sites that test depth, temperature, and salinity, conductivity, turbidity, and Secchi, a method of judging water quality based on the depth of the water in which the light from the surface reaches. In more recent years, Secchi scoring has recently been reported in the Chester River based on more in-depth testing, using multiple percent thresholds. By using multiple data points from tests that are done over time, an area is given an average water quality score. This is opposed to the former, single threshold method, in which a score is given based on one threshold that is decided at the beginning of the experiment. http://ian.umces.edu Mon, 07 Nov 2011 15:10:14 -0500 0:07:24 environment, ecology, management, restoration, research, monitoring, IAN Marcus Griswold IAN Seminar Series - November 2011 In 2008, Don Boesch led a study on the long-term impacts of climate change in Maryland. What this study found was that, over the course of one hundred years, communities in Maryland can expect to experience a three to four feet rise in sea-level, a temperature increase of four to seven degrees fahrenheit, potentially more flooding, as well as other related impacts. In moving forward, and affecting change on this issue, it is necessary to use a combination of two approaches; the mitigation approach, and the adaptation approach. Mitigation involves using less green house gasses to affect change globally. Adaptation involves making systematic adjustments at the local or state level, making communities more resilient to the effects of climate change. The effects of climate change directly affect habitat, species and water quality, which should be monitored in a number of different ways. These include protecting and regularly sampling reference sites, improving hydrologic and temperature data, and deciding upon the most important measures to be a part of the data. Then, it can be figured out which habitats and species are the most vulnerable, and how the resiliency of these habitats and species can be improved. http://ian.umces.edu Mon, 07 Nov 2011 13:31:30 -0500 0:19:15 environment, ecology, management, restoration, research, monitoring, IAN Caroline Wicks IAN Seminar Series - October 2011 Baltimore Harbor is a historic port city built on two tidal sub-regions of the Chesapeake Bay. This report evaluated tidal ecological health indicators and human health and aesthetics indicators. The indicators examined were disolved oxygen, Chlorophyll a, water clarity, total nitrogen, total phosphorous, benthic macro invertebrates, submerged aquatic vegetation, toxic contaminants, bacteria, trash and fish toxicity. All ecological health indicators scored as poor or very poor and the human health and aesthetics indicators scored as moderate and poor. http://ian.umces.edu Wed, 19 Oct 2011 15:26:43 -0400 0:14:12 environment, ecology, management, restoration, research, monitoring, IAN Chris Chinn IAN Seminar Series - June 2011 The Queensland government, as part of the Paddock to Reef Program, is preparing an annual report card on the health of the Great Barrier Reef. The report card utilizes monitoring and modeling from the paddock (farm) scale through the riverways and down to the reef scale. The Great Barrier Reef is a world heritage site, encompassing 2900 reefs, in addition to seagrass meadows and mangrove habitats. The GBR spans 2300km along the Australian coastline. Reef health is threatened by numerous impacts, among them climate change, shipping, coastal development, and point source pollution; the Paddock to Reef Program focuses on diffuse source pollution from agriculture. The Reef Plan contains several targets aimed at improving land management practices for wetland loss, riparian cover, and groundcover. Land practices are graded on an ABCD scheme, with excellent practices that have high water quality benefits earning a grade 'A' and poor practices having a grade 'D'. Catchment indicators, catchment loads, and marine indicators are also integrated into the report card. Practice adoption data is collected by industries and graded on the ABCD framework. The main industries along the Queensland coast include bananas, grazing, cropping, sugar cane, and horticulture. Multiple lines of evidence are a critical aspect of the program, starting with practice adoption (verified with land use, bare ground index), practice effectiveness (rainfall simulation activities, plot monitoring, paddock models), water quality reductions at different basin scales, and ecosystem outcomes with marine monitoring (water quality, coral and seagrass health). http://ian.umces.edu Thu, 02 Jun 2011 17:02:21 -0400 0:15:03 environment, ecology, management, restoration, research, monitoring, IAN Andrew Muller IAN Seminar Series - March 2011 Hypoxia trends in the South River have been documented over summer (April-August) 2010. Twenty-one sites, seven of which are in the mainstem, were sampled weekly. Two stations were added in the past year based on feedback from the MTAC (Mid-Atlantic Tributary Assessment Coalition) group. In April 2010, hypoxic  (low dissolved oxygen) conditions started to emerge. Stratification in the mainstem South River is rather ephemeral, with the water column mixing weekly or in some locations, even daily from strong wind events. Stratification typically fosters low dissolved oxygen conditions. The summer was characterized by high temperatures--driven by La Nina--and strong wind events from the south and southeast. During May, DO conditions were not as low as usual for the time of year. Sampling location order was varied to diversify wind and tidal stage conditions found throughout the day. One station is too shallow to be sampled except during an incoming or flood tide, due to altered hydrodynamics resulting from Route 50. In late July, anoxic conditions began to develop relatively high the water column. Anoxic (no DO) and hypoxic (low DO) conditions create a habitat squeeze, in which fish, crabs, and other animals are forced higher in the water column to find sufficient DO conditions. In August, conditions alternatively showed anoxic and hypoxic waters. To enhance data collection, the South River has started experimenting with several autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) with attached sensors to monitor spatial and temporal trends within the river. http://ian.umces.edu Tue, 15 Mar 2011 10:51:30 -0400 14:36 environment, ecology, management, restoration, research, monitoring, IAN Megan Ward IAN Seminar Series - March 2011 Over the past few years, the Nanticoke Watershed Alliance has worked with stakeholder groups to create a comprehensive Watershed Management Plan. The Nanticoke Watershed Alliance serves as an umbrella organization for partnership among diverse groups of environmental advocates, business, industry, and other stakeholders. In development of the Watershed Management Plan, the Alliance held a green infrastructure conference in winter 2007, a community outreach initiative over 2008-2009, listening sessions in winter 2009, and a community "visioning" conference in March 2010. The Future Search model was applied to create a matrix of stakeholder groups, with the intention to maximize geographic, generational, gender, and racial diversity within the watershed. During the community visioning conference, stakeholder groups created two vision statements and plans for implementation. These recommendations are being incorporated into the Watershed Management Plan, anticipated for completion in April 2011. The Plan will be used by county governments for conservation and development initiatives. http://ian.umces.edu Mon, 14 Mar 2011 11:03:58 -0400 17:42 environment, ecology, management, restoration, research, monitoring, IAN Peter Bergstrom IAN Seminar Series - March 2011 Magothy River ecosystem health, particularly surface dissolved oxygen (DO), was assessed by the Magothy River Association. While DO is usually measured in bottom waters where algae fall, decompose, and create low DO conditions, algal blooms at the surface can create low DO conditions throughout the water column. Low DO presents problems for biota like fish and crabs. Volunteers collected data from sampling sites grouped into three locations: Magothy creeks, Magothy mainstem, and Mill and Dividing creeks. The sites at Mill and Dividing creeks were added to the data set after 3 million gallons of untreated sewage spilled into upper Mill creek in 2005. Summertime (June-September) data revealed higher DO at the surface than within the water column, and higher DO in the mainstem instead of creeks. Surface and water column DO were the worst overall, with the greatest spatial variability, in Mill and Dividing creeks. http://ian.umces.edu Fri, 11 Mar 2011 14:13:02 -0500 0:15:04 environment, ecology, management, restoration, research, monitoring, IAN Katherine Antos IAN Seminar Series - March 2011 The Chesapeake Bay TMDL, finalized by EPA in December 2010, sets limits for the amount of nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus) and sediment permitted to enter the Bay through its watershed. These pollution levels are determined by the amount that can enter the Bay and still meet water quality standards of dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll a, and submerged aquatic vegetation water clarity in the 92 tidal segments where metrics are measured. The EPA led the Bay's seven watershed jurisdictions--Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, and the District of Columbia--in establishing the TMDL under regulations set forth by the Clean Water Act. The use of an accountability framework is a hallmark of the Chesapeake Bay TMDL. The framework starts with each states' Watershed Implementation Plans (WIPs). Phase I WIPs, completed in 2010, highlighted wastewater treatment plant reductions, urban stormwater permits, and new programs and technologies for agriculture. Phase II WIPs, currently in process, focus on local partners and include revised model results for agricultural nutrient management and urban land use area. The WIPs are incorporated into the TMDL with regular two-year milestones and additional modeling and monitoring to evaluate progress. Federal action can be taken if EPA determines that WIPs or milestones are not adequate to achieve results. This framework will guide agencies through 2025, the goal set for achieving pollution reduction levels, 60 percent of which must be obtained by 2017. http://ian.umces.edu Thu, 10 Mar 2011 13:55:39 -0500 0:19:02 environment, ecology, management, restoration, research, monitoring, IAN Ken Reckhow IAN Seminar Series - February 2011 Environmental simulation models are invaluable tools for informing societal decision making. For example, we depend on hydrologic models to inform water supply/flooding decisions, water quality models for Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs), and air quality models for standards compliance assessment. When multiple models are available, it is not uncommon to apply more than a single model to inform a decision, particularly if the consequences of a decision are significant, and uncertainties are believed to be large. Consider weather forecasting for major storms such as hurricanes. It is now common practice for a meteorologist to display the projected deterministic trajectories of the hurricane’s eye based on several model forecasts; the fact that these models are based on different mathematical constructs adds to the robustness of the envelope covering the range of storm trajectories. It also provides greater public awareness of possible outcomes than does a single deterministic trajectory. In 1997, a four-year study (“Neuse ModMon”) was initiated that eventually led to an approved nitrogen TMDL for the Neuse River Estuary. In this study, two mechanistic models (CE-QUAL-W2 and EFDC-WASP) were applied along with a probabilistic Bayes network. Like the current Chesapeake Bay model, the 2D and 3D mechanistic models produced considerable space/time predictive detail on the regulated response variables (e.g., chlorophyll a and dissolved oxygen) but their complexity prohibited the quantification of prediction uncertainty. In contrast, the Bayes net was selected specifically to express prediction uncertainty in probabilistic terms. Notably, the flexibility of Bayes nets also allowed expert elicitation of probabilistic relationships for endpoints (e.g., probability of major fishkills, shellfish survival) that were meaningful to the public but were not predicted by the mechanistic models. During the time of model refinement and development of the TMDL, frequent meetings were held with stakeholders to describe progress with the modeling and the TMDL and to address concerns about the adequacy of the Neuse ModMon effort to provide a scientific basis for water quality improvement. In early meetings, stakeholders in general were pleased with the aquatic ecosystem detail in the two mechanistic models, while admittedly not understanding model relationships. However as time progressed, interest shifted toward the simpler BN model because the conceptual presentation of the network was easy to grasp, because the uncertainty analysis presented through the BN provided stakeholders with a realistic appraisal of the difficulties in predicting aquatic ecosystem response, and because the BN assessed ecologically-meaningful endpoints. http://ian.umces.edu Mon, 28 Feb 2011 13:19:54 -0500 18:47 environment, ecology, management, restoration, research, monitoring, IAN Robert Hirsch IAN Seminar Series - January 2011 For over 30 years there has been extensive collection of water quality and streamflow data for the major rivers entering the Chesapeake Bay. These data have the potential to help us understand changes over time in nutrient inputs. However, properly calculating the direction, magnitude, and nature of the changes in nutrient inputs is not a simple task because of the extensive amounts of seasonal variation and streamflow-driven variation that exist in these records. A new approach has been developed, called “Weighted Regressions on Time, Discharge, and Season” (WRTDS). Recently published results using this method help to reveal the types of trends that exist in nitrate and total phosphorus inputs to the Bay from the non-tidal portions of the Bay’s major tributaries. Some changes can be related to implementation of point source controls; others suggest increased non-point source inputs. Still others are related to increased nitrate in ground water. This new method helps the analyst to look beyond the variations that arise due to year-to-year streamflow differences, in order to understand fundamental changes in the functioning of individual watersheds. http://ian.umces.edu Tue, 18 Jan 2011 17:59:43 -0500 24:43 environment, ecology, management, restoration, research, monitoring, IAN Donald Weller IAN Seminar Series - November 2010 Watershed analyses of nutrient removal in riparian buffers have been limited by the geographic methods used to map buffers and by the statistical models used to test and quantify buffer effects on stream nutrient levels. We combined geographic methods that account for buffer prevalence along flow paths connecting croplands to streams with improved statistical models to test for buffer effects on stream nitrate concentrations from 321 tributary watersheds to the Chesapeake Bay, USA. We developed statistical models that predict stream nitrate concentration from watershed land cover and physiographic province. We used information theoretic methods (AICc) to compare models with and without buffer terms, and we demonstrate that models accounting for riparian buffers better explain stream nitrate concentrations than models using only land cover proportions. We analyzed the buffer model parameters to quantify differences within and among physiographic provinces in the potentials for nitrate loss from croplands and nitrate removal in buffers. On average, buffers in Coastal Plain study watersheds had a higher relative nitrate removal potential (95% of the inputs from cropland) than Piedmont buffers (35% of inputs). Buffers in Appalachian Mountain study watersheds were intermediate (retaining 39% of cropland inputs), but that percentage was uncertain. The absolute potential to reduce nitrate concentration was highest in the Piedmont study watersheds because of higher nitrate inputs from cropland. Model predictions for the study watersheds provided estimates of nitrate removals achieved with the existing cropland and buffer distributions. Compared to expected nitrate concentrations if buffers were removed, current buffers reduced average nitrate concentrations by 0.73 mg N/l (50% of their inputs from cropland) in the Coastal Plain study watersheds, 0.40 mg N/l (11%) in the Piedmont, and 0.08 mg N/l (5%) in the Appalachian Mountains. Restoration to close all buffer gaps downhill from croplands would further reduce nitrate concentrations by 0.66 mg N/l, 0.83 mg N/l, and 0.51 mg N/l, respectively, in the Coastal Plain, Piedmont, and Appalachian Mountain study watersheds. Aggregate nitrate removal by riparian buffers was less than suggested by many studies of field-to-stream transects, but buffer nitrate removal is significant and restoration could achieve substantial additional removal. http://ian.umces.edu Thu, 18 Nov 2010 11:06:38 -0500 22:31 environment, ecology, management, restoration, research, monitoring, IAN Margaret Palmer IAN Seminar Series - October 2010 Restoring the Chesapeake Bay's natural processes and functions (e.g., water regulation, nutrient cycling) in order to produce widely enjoyed benefits (e.g., recreational fishing and swimming) requires a multi-faceted approach, which includes using the strongest science possible to maximize the effectiveness of our restoration actions. We will describe results from a recent literature review in which we sought to establish the scientific evidence that specific monitoring metrics could successfully measure functional outcomes of natural restoration projects and be used in adaptive management. The work was conducted for the National Fish and Wildlife Federation and examined metrics applicable to some of the project types they fund: tidal and non-tidal wetland restoration, stream restoration, and "green" stormwater management. Some key take-home points were: 1. restored sites are marked by high variability and therefore early measurements can provide misleading indications of both positive and negative outcomes; 2. Some integrative metrics can be difficult to use in adaptive management since they can fail to pinpoint stressors; and 3. For stream restoration, restoring structure does not necessarily restore function. Overall, it appears that many metrics in widespread use are not providing useful information about key functional outcomes and that fewer, more meaningful, metrics may be preferred to many inexpensive metrics. An impediment to our evidence-based approach was that the number of case studies was insufficient to generate findings that could be readily applied across diverse settings. Therefore, our next step will be to review the literature findings with subject area experts to further distill the evidence and consider the transferability of isolated case studies to broader geographic regions. Finally, it was clear from the review that initial site selection and project goal setting must be realistic with respect to site constraints. The best restoration design and implementation cannot overcome high levels of system stress, therefore screening sites for compatibility with restoration goals is probably the most important component of promoting successful restoration. http://ian.umces.edu Mon, 18 Oct 2010 16:20:07 -0400 16:49 environment, ecology, management, restoration, research, monitoring, IAN Bob Wood IAN Seminar Series - September 2010 In order to better meet our ecosystem-based fishery management goals we need to move beyond traditional single species management plans to consider interconnections between species, their physical and living environments, and human influences. The Chesapeake ecosystem is highly responsive to climate variability, especially with respect to the winter-spring transition. The Chesapeake appears to have been responding strongly to the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) for over a century. These fluctuations seem to be driving production & commercial landings within and beyond the Chesapeake for economically and ecologically valuable fishes. The stable nature of the AMO's 60-year periodicity seems to provide a valuable tool that can help prevent future fishery collapses: collapses likely caused by coupled production declines and late effort reductions; fishery targets and thresholds must acknowledge these patterns. http://ian.umces.edu Fri, 10 Sep 2010 18:59:54 -0400 22:12 environment, ecology, management, restoration, research, monitoring, IAN Bill Dennison IAN Seminar Series - September 2010 Using citizen scientists, trained volunteers who collect accurate data, to generate ecohealth report cards provides the opportunity for informal educational experiences. Ecohealth report cards, assessments of ecosystem health using a suite of indicators, can be used to enhance environmental literacy. This increased literacy will help citizen scientists achieve healthy waterways; an empowered citizenry can make informed decisions, promote environmental stewardship, and influence others to adopt behaviors that promote healthy streams, rivers, lakes, bays, and ocean. Using citizen scientists can help to reduce the significant investment in resources required for effective monitoring programs, but care must be taken to assure data quality. Currently, 8-12 mid-Atlantic watershed organizations require analysis and communication assistance from the Integration and Application Network to produce report cards. These groups express the need for technology solutions to address citizen scientist recruitment, engagement, training, and management. IAN is looking to develop a formalized report card process and create web and smartphone app portals to standardize data entry and dissemination. http://ian.umces.edu Wed, 01 Sep 2010 18:35:37 -0400 14:56 environment, ecology, management, restoration, research, monitoring, IAN Walter Boynton IAN Seminar Series - August 2010 We have done a great job at figuring out where all the nitrogen comes from, but we are a little weak on where it goes. Is it going away or will it result in longer term problems? There has been a 7-Fold increase in N since John Smith's arrival to Bay Area. 50% increase during first 360 yrs and 50% increase in last 40 yrs. There are quite a few hotspots in the land and sea-scape for nitrogen sources, but also areas that remove nitrogen. A mass balance for the Patuxent tidal marshes (which represent only 2% of the basin landscape) showed 48% removal of all the nitrogen coming into the system. Rates of removal are equivalent to all the sewage treatment plants on the Patuxent. Population in the basin is going up, but the area of impervious surfaces has increased even more. Historically the Chesapeake region had significantly greater wetlands area, promoted in part by beaver activity. This has resulted in significant reductions in the rates of denitrification. The bay has nutrient obesity - too much of a good thing. Restoration goals should include fostering wetland areas. http://ian.umces.edu Wed, 04 Aug 2010 13:32:00 -0400 15:45 environment, ecology, management, restoration, research, monitoring, IAN Howard Townsend IAN Seminar Series - July 2010 For ecosystem-based management and assessment multiple users of ecosystem resources have to be taken into account and decisions about trade-offs among multiple uses must be dealt with in a manner that all agencies and stakeholders understand and can engage in. Involvement of multiple stakeholders means multiple agencies that oversee the use of resources will be involved with resource management decisions and policies. Each agency has its own sets of jargon, acronyms, and perspective on how an ecosystem operates. The perspectives on how the system operates may be captured in different modeling method and structures for each segment of the ecosystem. Diversity in management agencies and stakeholders can result in a "Tower of Babel", i.e., everyone speaking different "languages" resulting in decreased productivity or even catastrophe. In addition, ecosystem interactions tend to be complex, and visualizing the high-dimensional data associated with ecosystems can be difficult. Scientists engaged in research and modeling need to summarize and synthesize results across disciplines and objectives so that all stakeholders can understand and make informed decisions about trade-offs in ecosystem services. This presentation will focus on the NCBO Ecosystem Modeling Team's efforts to use cgi graphics to facilitate decision support for the Sustainable Fisheries Goal Implementation Team in exploring ecosystem-based fisheries management scenarios. http://ian.umces.edu Thu, 01 Jul 2010 13:00:51 -0400 14:32 environment, ecology, management, restoration, research, monitoring, IAN Kathy Boomer IAN Seminar Series - May 2010 To help meet Federal and state mandates to regulate nutrient discharges, Maryland now requires that all Maryland municipalities prepare a non-point source discharge assessment as part of a Comprehensive Growth Plan. This mandate presents an ideal opportunity to integrate watershed science and management. State guidelines currently suggest using the Maryland Department of Planning (MDP) Non-Point Source Assessment Spreadsheet to downscale annual average predictions from the Chesapeake Bay Program's HSPF Phase 4 model. The assessment tool is intended to help land managers minimize surface water quality impacts by providing nutrient load estimates under current and future land use scenarios. We implemented the MDP tool for a Maryland town, along with three watershed models, GWLF, SWAT, and the CBP-HSPF5, The differences in predicted water quality among alternative land use scenarios being considered by town planners (including a no change scenario) were small, especially compared to the variation among models in the predictions for any single scenario. In addition, all the models agreed that nutrient discharges originate primarily from outside the planning jurisdiction. Because of the dominance of external sources and the similarity among scenarios, the predicted impacts from non-point source pollution have had little influence on the Town's land management decisions. http://ian.umces.edu Wed, 26 May 2010 12:31:32 -0400 15:50 environment, ecology, management, restoration, research, monitoring, IAN Heath Kelsey IAN Seminar Series - April 2010 Empirical models were developed at South Carolina beaches and estuaries to create daily forecasts of bacterial water quality for use as decision support tools. These tools predict exceedance of bacteria criteria using integrated monitoring data, remote sensing, and meteorology information. The models developed for beach areas used precipitation data from a rain gauge network, tide data, and qualitative weather information to predict criterion exceedance. Current efforts on these tools include integrating data from ocean observing systems and precipitation data from remote sensing products to create near-real time prediction updates presented in a web-based GIS. Similar predictive models for fecal coliform bacteria concentration were developed using integrated data from monitoring programs, meteorology, and remote sensing. These two related modeling efforts highlight the utility and feasibility of integrating data from observing systems and remote sensing to create empirically-based decision support tools. http://ian.umces.edu Wed, 28 Apr 2010 13:20:10 -0400 14:45 environment, ecology, management, restoration, research, monitoring, IAN Walter Boynton IAN Seminar Series - March 2010 The Corsica River project, an intensive restoration effort focused on a sub-estuary of the Chester River on the Eastern Shore of Chesapeake Bay, offered an opportunity to review the lessons learned that can help guide the restoration efforts throughout Chesapeake Bay. There were seven major lessons learned from this analysis of the Corsica River restoration. 1) Develop a conceptual model at the beginning of the project and use 'back of the envelope' calculations to identify important processes and make linkages between management and ecosystem responses. 2) Do a nutrient budget to insure that the overall components are of the correct magnitude and avoid missing large missing pieces of the nutrient budget. 3) Use a combination of monitoring static parameters and process measurements to determine rates of key processes—in the Corsica River example, rate measurements of nutrient burial, nutrient recycling and denitrification were essential. 4) Initiate the measurement program early to obtain 'baseline' information, and continue measurements for full annual periods of time. 5) Measurements over multiple years is critical because of climate variability (wet vs. dry years) and increases the statistical power of the analyses. 6) It requires a team effort involving experts from multiple agencies and academic institutions prompting the quote 'When the going gets tough, the smart collaborate'. 7) Data synthesis does not happen without resources and vision—the Corsica River project had a distinct and funded goal with the necessary leadership to reach a useful endpoint. http://ian.umces.edu Tue, 30 Mar 2010 16:22:52 -0400 22:44 environment, ecology, management, restoration, research, monitoring, IAN Sara Powell IAN Seminar Series - March 2010 In 2008, an innovative partnership between the University of South Carolina and Lake Wateree, SC homeowners began in order to restart previously existing water quality monitoring efforts, provide data analysis, and make resulting information easily accessible to stakeholders. This project explored effective ways to foster links between 'science' and people - i.e. how to most effectively communicate scientific concepts and monitoring results to stakeholders addressing real world concerns. Lake Wateree spans three counties in South Carolina and is the last in a series of eleven reservoirs within the Catawba/Wateree watershed that stretches across North and South Carolina. It is an important resource for recreation and municipal water use, and from 1999-2003, volunteers sampled monthly at sites across the lake in an effort to monitor water quality. The original intent was to use the data to appeal to decision-makers for action if needed, however no rigorous analyses were conducted, and therefore no tangible results were produced, causing interest and participation to wane. Following the Catawba-Wateree River's designation as 'America's Most Endangered River' in 2008 by American Rivers, there was renewed interest in regularly monitoring the health of Lake Wateree by home and property owners on the lake. Partnering with USC allowed the homeowners to revamp and restart their monitoring efforts, and to establish standard protocols and data collection methods. Currently, after each monthly sampling run, USC personnel download the raw data and generate a report that is sent back to the homeowners associations for dissemination. The reports by request are basic and do not include extensive comparison with past monitoring results. To address this, an interactive, website incorporating Google Maps was developed so that interested persons can access all past reports as well as additional relevant information, and learn about the monitoring efforts taking place on the lake (http://sites.google.com/site/watereewaterwatch/). Collaboration between USC and the homeowners has resulted thus far in: increased volunteer participation, community wide meetings on the importance of water quality, publicity in a variety of news outlets, and reception of a $5,000 grant (applied for by a homeowner) in support of the project. Since volunteer based monitoring is recognized as a way for citizens to translate knowledge into action, make informed decisions, and provide information to influence future resource management strategies, the expectation is that this partnership will ultimately result in greater public support for monitoring and stewardship of Lake Wateree and the surrounding watersheds. http://ian.umces.edu Tue, 30 Mar 2010 16:15:25 -0400 14:45 environment, ecology, management, restoration, research, monitoring, IAN