Marine Nearshore Indicators Subcommittee
Report to the Governor’s Forum on Monitoring
July19, 2005
Task of Subcommittee
This subcommittee is to bring recommendations to the Forum at its next regular meeting on a specific indicator or set of indicators to be included in the State of Salmon report that would characterize marine conditions in Puget Sound, the coast, and the lower Columbia River estuary.
Members and meetings held
The subcommittee met on July 12th, from 10:00-3:00
A second meeting took place on July 14, 10:00-1:00.
Subcommittee members:
Jan Newton, UW
Tom Mumford, DNR
Curtis Tanner, US F&W
Michael Rylko, EPA
Casey Rice, NOAA
Scott Redman, PSAT
Wayne Palsson, DFW
Brian Grantham, Ecology
Margaret Dutch, Ecology
Kim Stark, King County
Lydal Johnson, NOAA
Russell Stranton, NOAA
Jim West, DFW
Sandra O’Neill, DFW
Mary Lou Mills, DFW
Dave Nysewander, DFW
Sarah Brace, PSAT
Steve Leider, GSRO
Terry Wright, NWIFC
Tim Determan, DOH
Recommended Options
In the process of developing indicators for the estuary and marine waters, the subcommittee agreed that one or a few indicators was not sufficient to characterize the ecosystem of the estuaries and coastal waters of Washington. The subcommittee developed a suite of indexes that more fully reflect the complexity of the estuary and marine ecosystem. The indexes fall under the main categories of “Inputs from Watersheds”, “Habitat” and “Ecosystems, Communities and Species”.
These indexes are integrators of many key components of the ecosystem and data availability for these components is variable. The table below provides a summary of:
- information the index provides,
- key components of the index,
- availability of data for the index, and
- next steps needed to complete the index including estimated level of funding.
To fully characterize the condition of the estuary and how it relates to effort to recover salmon, marine birds, orcas and other species, one or two indexes alone will not be sufficient. However, the subcommittee recognizes that the effort to develop the full suite of indexes listed below will require significant time, staff resources and funding investments.
The Subcommittee will work with the Forum to develop a strategy (with options and proposed timeline) for prioritizing and completing the development of the indexes.
Estuary Subcommittee Report1July 13, 2005
Category
/ Indicator / Components of indicator / What does this tell us? / Readiness of indicator(Still needed: coastal and Columbia R input. / Next steps and their
Associated costs.
Low $ = 10s of K
Mod $ = $100 of K
High $ = Millions of K
Habitat / Shoreline modification index / Extent of altered and shoreline, bulkheads, armoring, etc. / Characteristic of shoreline and nearshore – altered drift cells, changes in gravel size, sediment structure, etc.Also track where shoreline relatively intact/natural.
Inventory of restoration efforts? / DNR – one time shoreline inventory (ShoreZone) (2000).
Counties – shoreline inventories variable depending on county.
Other:
MRCs
Academia
Tribes
Columbia R. Estuary / Shoreline inventory should be
continued and repeated at a regular frequency - every 5 years (moderate $)
Analysis of 2000 data to refine
the ShoreZone index. Product:
description of the condition
(moderate $)
Aquatic and wetland habitat composition index / Relative abundance of intertidal and subtidal habitat types (such as marine riparian vegetation, tidal saline, brackish and freshwater wetlands marsh acres, kelp, eelgrass, mudflats, marshes, rocky habitat. / Condition of habitat for forage fish, salmon, and other organisms that utilize the aquatic and emergent vegetation, and unvegetated areas (i.e. mudflat/sandflats, etc.)..
. / DNR/PSAMP on-going eelgrass; one-time shoreline modification
AG: on-going aquatic and wetland nuisance species, invasives
DFW/PSAMP: Data for San Juan
(10% of WA ecosystem). Additional data needed from remainder of the estuary/coastal waters
Other:
MRCs, local governments
Academia
Tribes
Columbia R. Estuary
/ Develop index (one
time low-med $)
Continue with existing
Species (no new $)
Add new species (moderate –
high $)
Ocean and deeper water (+30 ft) / Seafloor, substrate type, habitat type, / Condition of habitat for forage fish, salmon, and other organisms that utilize the deeper water habitats. / DFW/PSAMP data for San Juans seafloor map
Patchy data from Navy,
Other? / Continue existing monitoring
(no new $)
Build a consortium or fund
all at once (high $)
Measure human impact (low $)
Marine water quality
index / Extent of eutrification, info on physical properties (temperature, nutrients, DO, salinity, fecal contam.)PSP. / Eutrification changes primary productivity, changes food availability, oxygen availability. / ECY/PSAMP:on-going water quality
UW/PSAMP/PRISM: ongoing water quality
DOH/PSAMP: on-going fecal
Other:
Academia
Tribes
Columbia R. Estuary
Some local gov’ts / Continue existing monitoring (no new $)
Expand spatial coverage (mod $)
Sediment Quality Index / Chemistry, toxicity, infauna (triad index), other / Sediment quality and contaminant effects on benthic biota
Measures of contamination in the sediments / ECY/PSAMP ongoing.
Suspended sediments – needed. / Develop index (one-time
low-mod $)
Continue on-going sediment sampling (no new $)
Develop additional indexes on
for other seafloor organisms. (mod $)
Look at different strata – focus
studies to look at nearshore. (mod $)
Ecosystems, communities and species / Community integrity / Taxa richness, diversity, trophic structure (relationship between trophic levels in the food web; i.e. producers and consumers)
. / Large scale changes in the ecosystem communities affected by climate change, habitat change, contaminants, invasives, etc. / Food model tools but have not been applied – data are available. Partial data exists; more integration needed
Academia
DFW
DNR
ECY
NOAA Fisheries
EPA IBI Modules for wetlands (see BAWWG on EPA website) / Develop index (one
time low-med $)
Continue with existing
Species (medium $)
Expand food web studies to include plankton, additional key species, (mod-$)
Species condition (status) / All major biotic groups, salmon, groundfish, forage fish, marine birds, shorebirds, marine mammals, invertebrates and plants. / Abundance biomass, and population health for all stages of life history / Academia
DFW/PSAMP
DNR
ECY
NOAA Fisheries
EPA/PSAMP
USGS/US F&W
Tribes
Other:
Olympic Coast Marine Sanctuary
NGOs
Northwest Straits Commission / Develop index (one
time low-med $)
Continue with existing
Species (medium $)
Augment existing
Programs (mod $)
Plankton studies needed (mod $)
Harmful Algal Blooms
Other invasives (i.e., Spartina sp., European green crab, mitten crab, colonial tunicate, etc.) / PSP, domoic acid, others / Presence of biotoxins / DOH /PSAMP : ongoing PSP
NOAA Fisheries: on-going PSP
Other:
Academia
Tribes / Continue on-going monitoring (no new $)
Expand coverage to include other regions (Mod $)
Inputs from Watersheds / Marine biota contaminant index / Fish and wildlife,
invertebrates, plankton and
plants / Movement of contaminants through
biota and effects
(exposure and effects)
Are contaminates increasing or decreasing?
Is the ecosystem contaminated ? (PS eco
System more contaminated than the Columbia River Est.?
Extent and magnitude of contaminants through the food web. / EPA – EMAP
DFW/PSAMP: Ongoing fish contaminant
NOAA Fisheries: Ongoing fish contaminant
USGS/US F&W: terrestrial bird and mammal data
other:
Academia
Tribes / Develop index (one-time
low-mod $)
Continue with existing
Species (no new $)
Add new species (med-high $)
Estuary Subcommittee Report1July 13, 2005
Issues Critical for Success
- Marine and estuary ecosystems too complex to be characterized by one or two indicators.
- Data on many of the important indicators exists – funding needed to take to next step and develop integrated models
- Need to tie indicators to management activities and to stressors.
- Use indices as “fuel” for an adaptive management process
Costs to accomplish the task
See table above.
Approach
A possible approach is to prioritize the indices as to their degree of readiness and importance;
- Relatively ready to create (low hanging fruit)
- Marine water quality index
- Sediment quality index
- Biotic contaminant index
- Moderate to high cost but important
- Aquatic habitat composition index
- Community integrity index
- Species condition index
- Wish list
- Harmful algal bloom index
- Shoreline modifications index
- Ocean index
Players and their part of the solution
Players / Proposed Role(Lead, or support)
Puget Sound Ambient Monitoring Program / Ocean and deeper water (+30 ft) (lead)
Marine biota contaminant index (lead)
Harmful Algal Blooms
Species condition
Community integrity
Sediment Quality Index (lead)
Puget Sound Nearshore Partnership / Shoreline modification index (Lead)
Aquatic habitat composition index
White papers linking VEC’s to ecological processes, structures, and habitats
Lower Columbia Estuary Partnership / Species condition?
Aquatic habitat index
Community integrity
Sediment Quality Index?
Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board / Species condition?
Academia / Marine water quality (lead)
Marine biota contaminant index
Harmful Algal Blooms
Species condition
Sediment Quality Index
Tribes / Species condition
Community integrity
Sediment Quality Index
Marine water quality
Local government, MRC’s, LE’s / Species condition
Community integrity
NGOs / Species condition
Community integrity
USGS, US F&W, other federal partners / Marine biota contaminant index
Estuary Subcommittee Report1July 13, 2005