Regional GAP Analysis and Research in Great Lakes Tributary Rivers and Streams and Coastal Habitats

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Regional GAP Analysis and Research in Great
LakesTributary Rivers and Streams and Coastal
Habitats
James E. McKenna, Jr., Steve Aichele, Chris
Castiglione, John Gannon, Kurt Kowalski, Donna
Myers, Dora Passino-Reader, Donald Schloesser,
Jana Stewart

Special thanks to Stephanie Kula and Alex Covert
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The Great Lakes Region Contains The largest
freshwater system on Earth

• A diverse assemblage of aquatic organisms,
  including 300 species of fish.
• ¼ of the North American human population.
• Fishing, recreation, and tourism are
  multibillion-dollar industries.

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Aquatic GAP Analysis
An important component of GAP, because water is
the habitat and conduit by which the problems of
the land (land use) are transferred to our large
water bodies and the coast often magnified in
the process.
Especially in the Great Lakes
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The Great Lakes hydrologic system has been
strongly modified and in some cases severely
degraded.
Loss of habitat quality and availability
threatens biodiversity
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The regional scale

• The goal of the Great Lakes Aquatic GAP Program
  is to evaluate the biological diversity of
  aquatic species and their habitats and to
  identify gaps in the distribution and protection
  of these species and their habitats within the
  Great Lakes basin.

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People, States, and Stages
The planning year produced an assessment of the
feasibility of developing a regional aquatic Gap
project for streams in the Great Lakes watershed
and a pilot coastal aquatic Gap analysis.
Coastal GAP group effort focused on limited
geographic areas
Jana Stewart (USGS WRD)
Jim McKenna (USGS BRD) Chris Castiglione
(USFWS)
Steve Aichele (USGS WRD) John Gannon, Kurt
Kowalski, Dora Passino-Reader, Don Schloesser
(USGS BRD)
Donna Myers Stephanie Kula Alex Covert (USGS WRD)
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Timeline
 
 
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Great Lakes Aquatic Gap Analysis

• Rivers and Streams and the main component for the
  first phase
• Fish will be the primary class of organism
  examined, but other groups will be incorporated
  as data allows

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Regional Standardization

• Valley Segment Type (VST) classification

• Biological coding (IT IS) and data assessment
• Organization of databases for all states and
  areas in the region into a single central Oracle
  database system.

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The process
Riverine Component
4 basic steps in Basic GAP analysis approach
1.      Habitat classification and its
distribution 2.      Coarse filter
conservation 3.      Predict species and richness
distributions 4.      Refine conservation
statements (status recommendations)
unique VSTs
Blackstripe Topminnow
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• VSTs classify stream segments based on their
  physicochemical attributes, which are,
  presumably, of biological significance (at least
  for the taxa of interest).

• IFR Groundwater model will be adapted to
  estimate stream thermal regime for the region

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Ecoregional Drainage Units (EDU)
Help establish the basic species pool available
as a source for each region
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Glacial lithology
Bedrock
Ecoregional Drainage Unit
Temperature
OH VSTs based on 9 variables
gt

Gradient
Glacial drift thickness


Valley Segment Types
Link
Sinuosity
Dlink
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Number of Valley Segment Types
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Biological distributions and species-environment
models
Gathering the biological data, filtering it for
proper spatial and temporal coverage and
accuracy, and organizing it effectively is a
major undertaking.
Numerous data sources have been identified in
each state that should provide the necessary
information to successfully complete this
regional GAP analysis.
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Species-Environment Relationships
Multiple Regression
GARP model
Neural Network
HSI
Habitat Suitability Index
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Some example results from OH
American Brook Lamprey
Samples / Location
Brook Silverside
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Progress and Status

• By State

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Wisconsin
Extensive and accessible databases from WDNR,
USDA, and universities
WDNR already working with version of IFR
temperature model ? VST. Also interested in
increasing resolution to 124,000
WDNR has gt24,000 fish samples in OracleTM
database.
Stakeholders include USDA, WDNR, TNC, and UW
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Michigan
Extensive and accessible databases from IFR (Paul
Seelbach) and State agencies IFR has already
developed VST classification for MI
advisory group including MDEQ, MDNR, and MIC, as
well as UM, MSU, GVSU
Master OracleTM database being developed at GLSC
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Ohio
Statewide Aquatic GAP gt50 complete fish
species/diversity modeling and mussel, crayfish,
and wetland components underway.
VSTs are defined on 9 variables gt gt10,000 VSTs
gt15,000 samples from gt4,500 locations provided by
several agencies, including OEPA, ODOT, USGS
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New York
Biological Surveys
NY has several fisheries databases available from
the state DEC, US FWS, USGS, and Universities
List of stakeholders is being developed.
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Other states
List of stakeholders is being developed.
Some data sources have been examined for the
states occupying smaller components of the GL
drainage basin.
As part of projects in Minnesota and Illinois,
the UMESC (Lacrosse, WI) has agreed to help us
with the rivers and streams in those states
Considerable database for fish exists in
association with Pennsylvania GAP
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Coastal Gap Analysis

• Pilot Project

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Process and Progress
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Coastal Habitat Classification

• Preliminary approach
• Ribbon of coastal habitat between the 3m
  elevation contour and the 10m isobath
• Dividing the coast into 1 km long polygons.
• Values scored and standardized similar to that
  for VSTs .

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Examples of the 24 Candidate Variables used to
distinguish coastal habitats
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Preliminary identification of data sources

• Les Cheneaux Islands - Lake Huron
• Western Lake Erie Islands
• Nearshore Lake Erie
• Nearshore Lake Ontario

• USGS Offshore Fisheries Datasets

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Other work and plans

• EPA GLNPO-sponsored US FWS workshop
• NOAA N. C. coastal Hydrologic drainage unit
  designations
• Great Lakes Biocomplexity Study
• Investigations of Coastal Bathymetry and Geology

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Potential Research Topics

• How does the scale examined affect the outcome
  of planning/preservation scenarios?
• Is cluster analysis an effective means of
  objectively simplifying Valley Segment Type
  classification for aquatic habitats of the Great
  Lakes Basin?
• Can areas akin to Significant Biodiversity Areas
  (e.g., NY terrestrial GAP) be identified and used
  to characterize conservation status?
• Do significant differences in diversity and
  distribution of Great Lakes Basin fish
  assemblages exist?

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Proposed list of Products

• GAP analyses for rivers and streams by state and
  for the region
• Assessment of coastal GAP analysis for selected
  pilot areas within the Great Lakes
• State-level fact sheets on the riverine projects
• Peer-reviewed journal publications targeted to
  address biodiversity and conservations issues of
  concern to natural-resource managers at the state
  and project level

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Project Effects on Policy?

• Help with regional efforts to identify
  Biodiversity Investment Areas and development
  of State of the Lakes Indicators (e.g., for
  tributaries and coastal areas)

• MI, WI, OH ready to use aquatic GAP data as a
  planning tool for fish management and
  conservation by linking watershed scale features
  to biological integrity

• "Decision Support System" for integrating
  Transportation and Watershed planning in Ohio

• Assist New York with establishment of first
  statewide digital database of aquatic species

• Expanding understanding of aquatic ecosystems of
  the Great Lakes by pilot wetlands (OH) and
  freshwater coastal aquatic GAPs.

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Conclusions

• This project takes the next steps in GAP with
  regional scale riverine aquatic Gap and pilot
  Coastal Gap Analyses
• The project is important to state cooperators who
  have joined the effort
• Aquatic GAP in the Great Lakes will be done at
  the statewide, lakewide, and regional scales
  providing multiple spatial scales for analysis of
  biodiversity