Long Term Resource Monitoring Program The mission of the Long Term Resource Monitoring Program is to support decision makers with the information and understanding

needed to maintain the Upper Mississippi River System as a viable multiple-use large river ecosystem.

Positioning the Long Term Resource Monitoring Program for the Future Strategic Plan for the Long Term Resource Monitoring Program

on the Upper Mississippi River System, 2010–2014 The Long Term Resource Monitoring Program (LTRMP) was created over 20 years ago as part of the Environmental Management Program (EMP) on the Upper Mississippi River System (UMRS). It is a comprehensive program of monitoring, research, and data management that provides critical information about the status and trends of key river resources and their underlying processes. The LTRMP information is used extensively by resource managers, planners, administrators, scientists, academics, legislators, and the general public for improved understanding, problem solving, and informed decision-making about issues important to the UMRS.

The Strategic Plan, developed by an interagency partnership, identifies a set of four priority outcomes for 2010–2014. The four outcomes presented in this plan are essential to addressing UMRS information needs, understanding the river ecosystem, and providing knowledge for informed decisions. This effort will provide information needed to guide the LTRMP in the future and to maintain the Upper Mississippi River System as a nationally and internationally significant ecosystem. The Strategic Plan identifies desired outcomes and the associated outputs needed to achieve the outcome.

Outcome 1: Enhanced knowledge about system status and trends For large rivers that are highly variable over space and time, long-term data are essential to understanding system dynamics. Current monitoring protocols for water quality, aquatic vegetation, fish, and land cover continue to build upon a historic database that now spans more than 20 years. Program partners have identified monitoring resource status and trends as the highest priority for LTRMP to better understand long-term cycles and complex relationships among ecological components.

Six study reaches are monitored annually by the LTRMP. Standardized monitoring in these six reaches provides valuable information over the wide range of environmental and human-use gradients that exist in the UMRS. The multi-component and multi-habitat sampling design provides data on a broad range of environmental conditions and on biota at both community and species levels.

Monitoring sites: Researchers chose six study areas (red polygons) to represent conditions and habitats on the Upper Mississippi River System.

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By maintaining sampling designs and procedures, the relevance of a monitoring program increases over time. Longer data strings mean that changes in status and trends can be more reliably detected against the background of long-term cycles and wide variation.

Output 1.1: Status and trends information based on long-term data sets for aquatic vegetation, water quality, fish, and land use/land cover.

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Output 1.2: Indicators of success at system, floodplain reach, and geomorphic reach-scales, based on system goals and objectives.

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The UMRS resource managers and scientists recently developed ecosystem restoration goals for the UMRS. Development of geomorphic reach (a segment of channel with similar geometry and bank treatments) objectives has been initiated and is expected to be completed within the next few years. The LTRMP will continue to use its rich historical database to refine the list of indicators in the 2008 Status and Trends Report and to develop new key system and reach scale ecosystem health indicators. The monitoring program can be used to track the status and trends of select indicators over time to measure progress towards meeting system and reach goals and objectives.

Output 1.3: Additional information for status and trends knowledge regarding mussels, bathymetry and floodplain elevation, floodplain forest, and invertebrates.

Data from additional resource variables are needed to broaden our understanding of the relationships among ecosystem components and processes and to track the status and trends of important species or guilds. The LTRMP partnership have identified native mussels, bathymetry and floodplain elevation, floodplain forest, and macroinvertebrates as priority resource areas over the next five years.

Output 1.4: Data collected at spatial scales that are appropriate to monitor progress toward meeting system and reach goals and objectives.

After river goals, objectives, and indicators are established at various geographic scales, additional status and trends information at corresponding spatial scales may be needed to enhance our ability to track success in meeting those goals within UMRS geomorphic and floodplain reaches, and the system. This information will provide decision makers with enhanced understanding of the dynamics of large floodplain rivers and facilitate successful multi-purpose resource management.

Current sample design

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Outcome 2: Enhanced knowledge about system process, function, structure, and composition Effective management requires knowledge about factors controlling the dynamics and interactions of important system components. To gain this knowledge, the program should continue on a logical growth path by expanding from a primary focus on data collection to additional emphasis on analyses, research, and model building. This will require development of a science-management process that provides for integration and coordination of research and monitoring activities. In addition, this will require using information and research capabilities to build on past efforts, particularly in producing models and decision support tools for managers.

Output 2.1: Insights about river process, function, structure, and composition based on long-term data sets.

The LTRMP has created an unprecedented, multidisciplinary data set that provides a tremendous opportunity for developing increased scientific understanding through data analyses. Expanded analyses will concentrate on improving our knowledge of system structure and function as related to management needs. Such analyses will explore patterns in the data (among pools, strata, years, or seasons), relationships among variables, evaluation of various metrics as potential indicators, or generate new variables from existing data (e.g., length frequencies, growth, year class strength, production). We will build on past analyses, contribute to the focused research agenda (Output 2.2), engage others outside the LTRMP partnership in conducting analyses, and use data sets outside of the LTRMP as needed.

Output 2.2: Information generated from focused research agenda—setting management objectives, aquatic vegetation, native mussels, floodplain connectivity, and landscape patterns.

Output 2.3: Decision support tools (e.g., models of system structure and function) to facilitate improved scientific

understanding and restoration management. Efforts under this output will be driven by the need to provide data and tools that enhance knowledge and help managers make informed management decisions. Modeling will be critical for developing effective adaptive management plans and for directing efforts in data analyses and focused research.

Output 2.4: Operational framework for adaptive management that clarifies relationships at multiple scales among past, present, and future adaptive management projects.

Current annual research projects will be replaced with a five-year focused research plan for each major question that can be implemented as funding and opportunities allow. The annual scope of work will follow the 5-year focused research plan with minor annual adjustments as we learn and get feedback from within and outside the program. Along with research efforts within the program, we will look for opportunities to leverage other programs and funding sources, and to engage others outside the LTRMP partnership (e.g., academics) in pursuing this agenda.

Ultimately, rehabilitation of the UMRS will be achieved by an accumulation of management actions that build on, and learn from, each other. Successfulness of project objectives has been measured for some past habitat rehabilitation and enhancement projects (HREPs) and lessons learned by resource managers have been incorporated into new projects and documented (i.e., adaptive management). The learning opportunities provided by HREPs and other river rehabilitation activities for both project performance and ecological effects can be further enhanced through a more formalized and intentional process of adaptive management.

Outcome 3: Enhanced use of scientific knowledge for implementation of ecosystem restoration programs and projects

Output 3.1: Use LTRMP infrastructure, data sets, and expertise to help formulate, design, and evaluate

ecological restoration projects.

Effective ecosystem restoration involves using the best available information and decision support tools to formulate, design, and evaluate management actions that address system, reach and site-specific goals and objectives. This outcome envisions a greater linkage between river managers who design restoration projects and LTRMP staff who conduct monitoring and research so that restoration projects are developed with the best available scientifi c information.

The purpose of this output is to ensure that the LTRMP information and staff are integrated into ecosystem restoration efforts at system, reach and site-specific levels, and that lessons learned are shared. Priority will be placed on ensuring existing knowledge and expertise are used to inform ecosystem project design and evaluation studies. The LTRMP personnel and infrastructure will also continue to support completion of site-specific project evaluations.

Output 4.1: Key decisions are informed by LTRMP data, research, and decision support tools.

Outcome 4: Enhanced ecological understanding to inform decisions

Output 4.2: Key decision makers are satisfied with LTRMPinformation and decision support system.

The LTRMP Partnership:

The actions presented in this plan are essential to understanding the river ecosystem, and helping decision makers make informed choices.

For further information visit the LTRMP Web site: http://www.umesc.usgs.gov/ltrmp.html

Michael D. Jawson, Director, USGS Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center, 608-781-6221, mjawson@usgs.govMarvin E. Hubbell, Regional Manager, Environmental Management Program,US Army Corps of Engineers, 309-794-5428, marvin.e.hubbell@usace.army.mil

Critical to the success of EMP is providing decision makers with targeted, easily accessible, and usable information regarding the UMRS ecosystem. This will require both the development and delivery of important information that is responsive to identifi ed needs.

Taking the Pulse of a River System: Research on the

Upper Mississippi River System

Product of the Long Term Resource Monitoring Program

Bringing 1890s Maps into the Digital Age

Maps detailing the Mississippi River floodplain about the time of Twain’s Life on the Mississippi are now updated for use with

geographical information systems. These georeferenced data of the original Mississippi River Commission maps give the best

historical picture of the river’s geomorphology and land use/land cover before impoundment of the river in the late 1930s. These

maps contain detailed information on vegetation cover, water depths, and land elevations and are invaluable resources for change

analysis and for habitat restoration planning. Island restoration efforts in particular use these maps to help determine where islands

and higher land features existed historically. Often, remnants of these features lie below the surface of the water, thereby decreasing

the amount of fill material needed for construction and increasing the likelihood of a successful restoration. (www.umesc.usgs.gov/

data_library.html)

Contact: Larry Robinson; lrobinson@usgs.gov

Effective river management requires knowledge about

factors controlling the dynamics and interactions of

important ecosystem components. The Long Term

Resource Monitoring Program (LTRMP) is the prized

diagnostic tool in the Environmental Management

Program for the Upper Mississippi River System that

provides critical information about the status and trends

of key environmental resources.

Upper Mississippi River System

Mark Twain raved about the Mississippi River basin as, “the

body of the Nation.” The “upper body” includes commercially

navigable reaches and branching tributaries that are recreation-

ally and environmentally important. Together they feed and

shelter an array of fish and wildlife in their fl owing channels,

floodplain lakes, backwaters, wetlands, and fl oodplain forests.

Main river channel

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1896

1999

2008

“Majestic bluffs … the shining river, winding here and there and yonder, its sweep interrupted at intervals by clusters of

wooded islands threaded by silver channels”

— Mark Twain, Life on the Mississippi, 1883, describing the Upper Mississippi River.

U.S. Department of th

e Interior

U.S. Geological Survey

Fact Sheet 2006–3098

June 2006

Printed on recycled paper

Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center, L

a Crosse, Wisconsin

Taking the Pulse of a River System: First 20 Years

Mississippi River

Illin

ois

River

Your doctor w

ould not base decisions fo

r your h

ealth care today

on one physical ex

amination when you were age three! Y

ou

would reasonably expect decisio

ns to be based on records fr

om

over your li

fetime. L

ikewise

, those responsib

le for m

onitorin

g

the health of th

e Upper Miss

issippi R

iver Syste

m want a more

comprehensive way to diagnose problems a

nd find tre

atment

options. T

o begin developing a comprehensive view

of the

river, t

he five neighborin

g states o

f the Upper M

ississ

ippi River

System and se

veral Federal agencies fo

rmed a partn

ership in

1986 to monitor ri

ver conditions a

nd long-term

trends in

the

Upper Miss

issippi and Ill

inois Rivers.

Six monitoring targets

The overall health

of a river is

reflected in the health

of its

biota, such as (1

) fish, (2

) inverte

brates (e.g., in

sects, worm

s,

and clams), and (3

) aquatic plants. The biota are affe

cted by (4)

water quality

and (5) sedim

entation, w

hich are often influ

enced

by surro

unding (6) land use and land cover. A

ll are lin

ked.

The Long Term Resource M

onitorin

g Program (LTRMP)

for the Upper M

ississ

ippi River S

ystem is

the Nation’s f

irst

large-scale effo

rt to determ

ine the status a

nd trends o

f these

natural components of a large riv

er. The miss

ion of the LTRMP

is to provide decisio

n-makers w

ith inform

ation to help them

balance the multiple uses o

f the M

ississ

ippi River. W

e all

benefit fro

m commercial shipping, fl

ood control, r

ecreation,

and other ecological services (e

.g., biodiversit

y, water su

pply,

biogeochemical and hydrological cyclin

g) provided by the riv

er.

Our goal is

to provide the informatio

n managers need to create

a healthy large riv

er ecosystem.

Accomplishments

This monito

ring program is

at the fo

refront of collectin

g,

sharing, and usin

g scientifi

cally-based inform

ation to

understand how large riv

ers functio

n and to improve riv

er

management. Other countrie

s have taken notice. C

hina, for

example, has asked fo

r help in learning how to monito

r its

Yangtze River.

A sample of what w

e’ve learned

The following pages in

troduce you to so

me of the fin

dings

from the monito

ring program over th

e past 20 years.

For full

reports and graphic browsers,

go to the LTRMP

Web page at www.umesc.usgs.g

ov/ltrmp.htm

l—

perhaps the world

’s best s

ource of ecological data

on large rivers.

Fish - good news and bad

The good news is

that almost a

ll fish

species

collected from the Upper M

ississ

ippi River

System over th

e past 100 years s

till ex

ist in the

river to

day. That is

more than a quarter o

f all

Monitoring sites: Researchers

chose six areas to represent

conditions and habitats on the

Upper Mississippi River System.

Researchers annually sample fish (shown here below

Lock and Dam 7 at La Crosse, Wisconsin) to

help analyze

the status of fish populations and detect tre

nds reflecting

the overall health of the river.

Long Term Resource Monitoring on

the Upper Mississippi River System