5/21/2015  |   10:30 - 10:45   |  101CD

CUMULATIVE EFFECTS AND CUMULATIVE EFFECTS ASSESSMENT: ROLES FOR FRESHWATER SCIENTISTS Renewed interest in quantifying cumulative effects follows from collaborations involving land-use planning, environmental assessment, biomonitoring, and eco-toxicology. The general concepts and various policy and legislative provisions set the stage for cumulative effects assessments. Given the many different definitions and philosophies, the applications of cumulative effects often diverge to the point of being contradictory. This special session high-lights current practice where cumulative effects are evaluated within the context of single and multiple environmental stressors and integrative biological effects. This presentation describes a general policy and legislative framework that is combined with examples of current practice to highlight where freshwater scientists can contribute and strengthen the scientific basis for assessing cumulative effects.

K. Somers (Primary Presenter/Author), Ontario Ministry of Environment and Climate Change, Keith.Somers@ontario.ca;


Chris Jones (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), Laurentian University, f.chris.jones@ontario.ca;


John L Bailey (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), Ontario Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change, jbailey@laurentian.ca;

5/21/2015  |   10:45 - 11:00   |  101CD

CHALLENGES IN A RETROSPECTIVE STRESSOR ANALYSES OF A LONG TERM SURVEILLANCE DATA SET I discuss some issues associated with using a large spatial scale (1million Ha) and medium temporal scale (9 year) surveillance monitoring data set in a retrospective manner. The fish community data collected for the ‘sustainable rivers audit’ in the Murray Darling Basin, Australia, meet extremely high quality control and quality assurance standards, and were collected in a well-design probabilistic sampling strategy. However, they are not designed for stressor or impact type assessments and even a simple retrospective analysis must consider complex interactions and assumptions. For example, I present a hierarchial analysis looking at responses by fish to changes in rainfall or river levels and show that the natural spatial extent (species distributions) account for the majority of variability in the data set. Ultimately, the data are only reasonably interpretable when either spatial or temporal variability are simplified (e.g. looking at small spatial or temporal scale changes). I present some challenging problems with this type of data set and hope to use the session to gain input from other researchers facing similar issues with data not designed specifically for stressor assessments.

Wayne Robinson (Primary Presenter/Author), Charles Sturt University, wrobinson@csu.edu.au;

5/21/2015  |   11:00 - 11:15   |  101CD

USE OF WATERSHED-SCALE BIOLOGICAL MONITORING FOR RESTORATION PLANNING AND EVALUATION Prince George’s County, located within Maryland’s Coastal Plain, is drained by three major river basins: the Anacostia River, the Patuxent River, and the non-Anacostia portions of the Potomac River. It is home to approximately 880,000 residents with approximately 43 percent urban land use. Two rounds of county-wide bioassessments have been completed (Round 1, 1999-2003; and Round 2, 2010-2013). Using the Maryland DNR benthic index of biological integrity, assessments are provided at four spatial scales: site-specific, subwatershed, major basin, and countywide; aggregate indicators above the site scale, are presented as ‘percent degradation’. Countywide, 52% of streams are biologically-degraded, with individual subwatersheds ranging from 14-83%. The County Department of the Environment (DOE) is in the process of responding to total maximum daily loads (TMDL) across various subwatersheds for biological oxygen demand, fecal coliforms, sediment, trash, polychlorinated biphenyls, and phosphorus. Subwatersheds are prioritized for restoration by percent impervious surface, structural and programmatic best management practices are being designed and implemented to control stormwater and other stressors and stressor sources, and biological condition (as percent degradation) is being used to document effectiveness.

James Stribling (Primary Presenter/Author), Tetra Tech, Inc., james.stribling@tetratech.com;
James Stribling is an aquatic biologist in Tetra Tech's Center for Ecological Sciences, Owings Mills, Maryland. He has led taxonomic quality control analysis of benthic macroinvertebrates and zooplankton for the National Aquatic Resources Surveys since 2004.

5/21/2015  |   11:15 - 11:30   |  101CD

WATER QUALITY AND BIOTA IN FOUR MULTI-STRESSOR LOTIC SYSTEMS: PATTERNS FROM A MULTI-FACETED, LARGE-SCALE, LONG-TERM DATASET Lotic systems are naturally spatially and temporally variable, and elucidating the relative response of water quality and biological endpoints to multiple stressors benefits from long-term data and multiple sampling locations within a reach. Our study used a multi-year (n=15), seasonally-sampled dataset of water quality (temperature, pH, color, conductivity, turbidity, hardness, COD, nutrients, and metals) and biota (fish, macroinvertebrates, periphyton) from multiple sites (n=5-7) in four streams (Codorus Creek, PA; Leaf River, MS; McKenzie and Willamette Rivers, OR) to examine patterns relative to non-point sources, and inputs from tributaries and wastewater discharges. Most water quality parameters were temporally variable. Greater conductivity, hardness, and color occurred downstream of effluent discharges in some streams, while tributaries were significant sources of some constituents. Bray-Curtis similarity analyses revealed that diatoms assemblages showed greater differentiation over years, while macroinvertebrates were driven largely by seasonal differences. Distinct spatial patterns in biota were observed to some streams and seasons. Analyses of biological data in the context of water quality endpoints and known stressors is underway, and detailed results will be discussed alongside challenges of multi-stressor assessments.

Camille Flinders (Primary Presenter/Author), NCASI, cflinders@ncasi.org;


Renee Ragsdale (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), NCASI, rragsdale@ncasi.org;


William Arthurs (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), NCASI, warthurs@ncasi.org;


Joan Ikoma (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), NCASI, jikoma@ncasi.org;


Diana Cook (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), NCASI, dcook@ncasi.org;


David Campbell (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), NCASI, dcampbell@ncasi.org;


Ron Messmer (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), NCASI, rmessmer@ncasi.org;


Jan Napack (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), NCASI, jnapack@ncasi.org;

5/21/2015  |   11:30 - 11:45   |  101CD

AD-HOC AND EX-POST DESIGNS FOR DISENTANGLING CUMULATIVE EFFECTS IN MIXED LAND USE LANDSCAPES A key objective of cumulative effects assessment is the prediction of the likely effects of changes in the amount and/or intensity of human activities. For this goal to be achieved the effects of individual activities must first be disentangled. In this study, we analyzed benthic macroinvertebrate data from middle-sized streams in southern Ontario exposed to urban and agricultural activities to compare study design and data analysis techniques aimed at deconstructing cumulative effects. Specifically, we look at using control/impact style designs versus ex-post variance partitioning analyses to disentangle the effects of urban and municipal wastewater inputs from agricultural inputs. Through these analyses we aimed to: 1) identify taxa, traits and metrics that can be used as indicators that are sensitive to specific effects of urban and agricultural activities; and 2) inform future assessment studies as to the effectiveness of different methods for deconstructing cumulative effects.

Adam G. Yates (Primary Presenter/Author), Western University & Canadian Rivers Institute, adam.yates@uwo.ca;


David Armanini (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), Western University & Canadian Rivers Institute, d.armanini@protheagroup.com;


Patricia A. Chambers (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), Environment and Climate Change Canada, 867 Lakeshore Rd., Burlington Ontario, Canada, L7R 4A6, patricia.chambers@canada.ca;

5/21/2015  |   11:45 - 12:00   |  101CD

CANCELED ENVIRONMENTAL CONTEXT INFLUENCES INVERTEBRATE COMMUNITY RESPONSES TO ANTHROPOGENIC PERTURBATIONS IN TEMPERATE STREAMS Assessing impacts of disturbance on stream ecosystems often uses macroinvertebrate indicators, but there is little known about the environmental factors that influence community resistance to perturbations. We predicted that community changes would be strongly contingent upon environmental context (e.g., catchment landuses) mediated through proximate effects on upstream assemblages, as opposed to the magnitude of local disturbance (e.g., wastewater discharges). To test our hypotheses, we sampled macroinvertebrate communities in twelve Swiss streams, with sampling reaches located above and below wastewater discharges, and assessed environmental factors at the local and catchment scale. We found that consistent with previous studies, wastewater discharges were associated with decreased alpha diversity and altered composition of downstream macroinvertebrate communities. Catchments with intensive landuses (e.g., cropping) had more pollution-tolerant assemblages, meaning that upstream community composition was a stronger determinant of total community sensitivity than the magnitude of the disturbance (e.g., wastewater discharges). In contrast, trait-specific indices were more sensitive to the effects of wastewater. This shows how anthropogenic influences across spatially heterogeneous landscapes shape macroinvertebrate community structure, and therefore determine the type of assemblages exposed to local disturbances

Francis Burdon (Primary Presenter/Author), Aquatic Ecology - Eawag, francis.burdon@gmail.com;


Katja Räsänen (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), Eawag, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, Dubendorf, Switzerland , katja.rasanen@eawag.ch;


Jukka Jokela (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), Aquatic Ecology - Eawag, jukka.jokela@eawag.ch;


Rik Eggen (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), Environmental Toxicology - Eawag, rik.eggen@eawag.ch;


Christian Stamm (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), Environmental Chemistry - Eawag, christian.stamm@eawag.ch;