aquatic ecosystem health in shenandoah national …...aquatic ecosystem health in shenandoah...

Aquatic Ecosystem Health in Shenandoah National Park - Benthic Macroinvertebrate Monitoring Results

(1990-present)

John E.B. Wofford1

Craig D. Snyder2

1National Park Service, Shenandoah National Park2US Geological Survey, Leetown Science Center

Acknowledgements – going back, way back

• David Demarest (NPS), Reese Voshell and Steve Hiner (VA Tech)

• SWAS ( Rick Webb, Jack Cosby, Jim Galloway)

• USGS (Karen Rice, John Jastram, Than Hitt)

• Lots, and lots, and lots of field techs

2

Monitoring History

• National Park Service Vital Signs Program

• Water quality (1979 – present)• Fish (1982-present for brook trout, 1996

– present for all fish species)• Macroinvertebrates (1984 – present)

Explanation

Shenandoah National Park Boundary

SWAS Monitoring StationsSHEN Monitoring Stations

Siliciclastic BedrockGranitic BedrockBasaltic Bedrock

From Jastram et al (2013)

Project Initiation (2010)

• Long term trends in biota had not been formally assessed and a holistic review of water resource data was needed

Jastram et al (2013)

Water QualitySummary

• Geology is a major spatial driver of water quality problems (i.e. acidification) with smaller, high elevation siliciclastic basins most impacted.

• Temporal trends indicate continued degradation and lack of recovery in poorly buffered systems, some improvement in other watersheds

• Almost all water temperature measures show increasing trend (over last decade median +0.3° C /year)

Benthic Macroinvertebrate Monitoring

• Richness• EPT richness• % EPT • % Ephemeroptera• Hydropsychidae:T%• Leuctra:P%• %2 Dominant Taxa

• Simpson D• Pollution tolerance value (PTV)• % Intolerant• % Scrapers• % Shredders• % Haptobenthos• VA Stream Condition Index (SCI)

Benthic Macroinvertebrate Metrics

Some go up…and some go down...and some go all around…

Spatial and Temporal Analysis

• Principle Component Analysis used to reduce number of environmental variables and general Iinear modeling used to assess geology and watershed area and interaction on measures

• For temporal trends• Simple linear regression

Spatial Results

Geology

-was a very strong predictor, significant with 12 metrics and explaining up to 64% of variation in some metrics

SiliciclasticGranitic Basaltic

SCI

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.8

0.9 A C B

Buffering capacity

Rich

ness

10

20

30

40

50

60

EPT-

r

A B B

Sim

pson

D

0. 6

0. 7

0. 8

0. 9

1. 0

DO

M2

0. 6

A C B

E%

0

15

30

45

60 A B B

EPT-

r

1 0

1 5

2 0

2 5

3 0

3 5

4 0 A B B

Leuctra stoneflies

Acidification –highly tolerant

Buffering capacity

B B AA B B

SiliciclasticGranitic Basaltic

EPT%

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.8

W ith L e u c t r aW ithout L e u c t r a

BA

B B AB

Copyright © 2012 Stephen Luk

Temperature increase–highly sensitive

Most pollution—highly sensitive

50 100 500 2000

SC

I

0.55

0.60

0.65

0.70

0.75

0.80

0.85

W atershed Area (ha)

Watershed Area

7 metrics were significantly influenced by watershed size

• Richness + EPT richness• PTV• %Intolerant• SCI• %Haptobenthos• % Shredder

Spatial Results

7 metric trends showed significant parkwide trends at some time scale

Richness

20 14 10 5-8

-6

-4

-2

0

2 0.812 0.068 0.000 0.000

Metric• Richness• EPT richness • Simpson D• Dominant 2• % Leuctra• %Ephemeroptera• %Haptobenthos

Stream Health Declining Declining Declining/Neutral Declining/Neutral Indeterminate Indeterminate Indeterminate

Benthic Macroinvertebrate Trends

Time period of analysis

EPT%

-0.03

-0.02

-0.01

0.00

0.01

0.020.056 0.486 0.114

R2 = 0.289

7 metric trends were dependent upon geologic class

In general, showed stream health stream health declines in poorly buffered systems and improvements or no trend in well buffered watersheds

20 Year Trends

Silic. Gran. Bas.

-2

-1.5

-1

-0.5

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

1991

1992

1993

1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

Mea

n te

mpe

ratu

re o

r Le

uctr

a ab

unda

nce

Mean annual temperature and Leuctra abundance (Z scores)

Mean temp

Mean Leuctra

-2

-1.5

-1

-0.5

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

1991

1992

1993

1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

Mea

n te

mpe

ratu

re o

r Le

uctr

a ab

unda

nce

Mean annual temperature and Leuctra abundance (Z scores)

Mean temp

Mean Leuctra

-2

-1.5

-1

-0.5

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

1991

1992

1993

1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

Mea

n te

mpe

ratu

re o

r Le

uctr

a ab

unda

nce

Mean annual temperature and Leuctra abundance (Z scores)

Mean temp

Mean Leuctra

Benthic macroinvertebrate summary• Geology is major driver of spatial patterns

in macroinvertebrate metrics, largely result of water quality (i.e. acidification).

• Temporal trends indicate small declines in ecosystem health parkwide with larger declines in condition in more acidified (i.e. siliciclastic geology) watersheds

• Increase in water temperature may be driving declining stream conditions parkwide

• Use data to support air quality improvements/mitigation/regulatory environment

• Restructure monitoring plans?• Difficult to formally assess current data

holistically• Develop park standards

• Stream liming (?)

Moving Forward

21

Questions?

http://pubs.usgs.gov/sir/2013/5157/.