Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center
June 2012 Activity Highlights
Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center
La Crosse, Wisconsin
Topics covered in the June activity report.
Aquatic Invasive Species
Asian Carp
- A commercial fish farm working under a contract with the Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center will begin spawning bighead carp and silver carp this June. The farm is contracted to provide multiple life stages of research animals for work related to the development of monitoring and control technologies. The contract will provide a large quantity of high quality, size-specific animals not otherwise available. The fish will be reared in state-approved controlled and/or recirculating systems to prevent escape. The animals are destined for use in work conducted by two Department of Interior agencies, two universities, and one state agency, work that requires healthy research animals of the appropriate size. In addition to providing animals for work in laboratory research, Purdue University and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign will conduct on-site trials with eggs and larval bighead carp and silver carp to evaluate potential techniques to reduce recruitment of bighead carp and silver carp following spawning. For more information, contact Mark Gaikowski (608-781-6284, mgaikowski@usgs.gov).
- Mike Jawson (UMESC), Doug Yeskis (IL WSC), Rip Shively (CERC), and Mark Gaikowski (UMESC) will meet with representatives of the Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and National Park Service to discuss the proposed USGS FY2013 research plans for work on Asian carp and receive partner feedback on the proposed research. The meeting will be held in Minneapolis, MN, June 4-5. For more information, contact Mark Gaikowski (608-781-6284, mgaikowski@usgs.gov).
- Barry Johnson (UMESC) and partners from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Upper Mississippi River Restoration - Environmental Management Program (UMRR-EMP) were interviewed by John Flesher (Associated Press, Traverse City, MI) June 11, regarding the Asian carp invasion in the Mississippi River and their effects on other fish species. Flesher is also planning to use online data summaries for fish provided through the Long Term Resource Monitoring component of the UMRR-EMP conducted by UMESC on the Upper Mississippi River System. This particular interview was a preliminary interview, a follow-up may occur. The story is expected to be completed and released by the end of June.
Sea Lamprey
- Terry Hubert and Mark Gaikowski (UMESC) will attend the Great Lakes Fishery Commission (GLFC) Annual Meeting in Buffalo, NY, June 6-7. Hubert and Gaikowski will discuss the UMESC program supporting the GLFC Sea Lamprey Control program with GLFC staff.
Aquatic Ecosystem Health
EPA Toxicity Studies and Mudpuppies
- Larval mudpuppy that were propagated and reared at the Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center (LaCrosse, WI) will be transferred to Columbia Environmental Research Center (Columbia, MO) for use in early developmental stage toxicity tests. This valuable information will be necessary to conduct EPA criterion calculations and provide sensitivity data for a broad spectrum of contaminants.
Great Lakes Federal Coastal Exchange
- William Richardson and James Larson (UMESC) participated in the Great Lakes Federal Coastal Exchange Retreat #2 at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Mid Continent Ecology Division Laboratory, Duluth, MN, June 13. The goal of the retreat was to (1) facilitate cross-agency thinking and partnerships on science of the Great Lakes coastal/nearshore zone, and (2) to highlight the importance of, approaches to, and priorities for Great Lakes coastal/nearshore science.
Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI)
Project #80, Birds as Indicators of Contaminant Exposure in the Great Lakes
- Chris and Tom Custer (UMESC) are completing the second phase of sampling for GLRI Project 80, Birds as Indicators of Contaminant Exposure in the Great Lakes. Samples are being collected for a suite of metrics ranging from genetic and physiological bioindicators (metabolomics, EROD induction, genomics, genetic damage) all the way up to population level effects (reproductive effects). Contaminants in these same samples will be assessed and associations with adverse effects will be documented. Twenty eight study sites on all 5 Great Lakes and connecting rivers, plus Lake St. Clair are being intensively sampled this year.
- Chris and Tom Custer (UMESC) provided a poster to the St. Clair River Area of Concern (AOC) public meeting on June 7 in Sarnia, ON. This poster was invited by the binational organizers to acquaint the public, as well as other scientists working at this AOC, with Project 80, Birds as Indicators of Contaminant Exposure in the Great Lakes. Data collection, which was initiated in 2012 at the St. Clair AOC, will provide data on two Beneficial Use Impairments (BUIs), so that State, Provincial, Federal, and National management agencies of the U.S. and Canada can make decisions on BUI removal based on solid scientific information.
National Park Service
Buffalo National Scenic Riverway
- Kevin Hop (UMESC) will conduct a close-out meeting and deliver the final mapping products for the National Park Service (NPS) Buffalo National River (BUFF) vegetation mapping project, June 19-20 at the BUFF Headquarters in Harrison, AR. The BUFF vegetation mapping project is in support of the NPS Vegetation Inventory Program (VIP). Attendees include, but are not limited to: NPS BUFF staff, Tammy Cook (NPS VIP), Rickie White (NatureServe), Tom Foti (Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission), Kevin Hop (UMESC), and Sara Lubinski. The meeting's agenda includes: presentations on the NPS VIP Inventory and Monitoring Program (Tammy Cook), BUFF project overview (Kevin Hop), vegetation classification (Rickie White), vegetation mapping (Kevin Hop), accuracy assessment (Sara Lubinski), and final products (Kevin Hop). A discussion on future product applications will be facilitated by Tammy Cook. A field tour will be conducted to showcase first hand some of the data products. The primary objective of the NPS Vegetation Inventory Program is to produce data sets of vegetation occurring within national park units. This information fills and complements a wide variety of resource assessment, national park management, and conservation needs.
River Floodplain Connectivity Workshop
- Ken Lubinski (UMESC) led the workshop, “Information Needs Related to Lateral (Floodplain) Connectivity: a Workshop for River Scientists, Managers, Policy Analysists, and Advocates,” in St. Louis, MO, June 5-8, attended by forty-six participants from federal, state and private institutions. Results of an e-survey distributed by Steve Gillespie (USGS-Reston) were summarized and discussed. The resulting list of information needs will be a key reference document during the development of a 5-year science plan written by UMESC and other river science institutions (selected at the workshop). Other USGS participants included Robb Jacobson (CERC), Kevin Richards (IA WSC), Craig Paukert (MO Co-op Unit), and Jeff Houser (UMESC).
Upper Mississippi River
Australian-American Fulbright Scholar Exchange
- The USGS Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center is co-hosting and collaborating with Winona State University on an Australian-American Fulbright Scholar exchange for Professor Martin Thoms, Riverine Landscapes Research Lab, The University of New England, Australia, through the end of November 2012. Dr. Thoms is a Senior Fulbright Scholar collaborating with scientists at both locations to determine the role of large river ecosystem resilience in response to climate change and associated variation in river flows. This exchange will greatly enhance the research approach to landscapes and hydrology aimed at better understanding and mitigating the effects of climate change on large rivers. For additional information contact William Richardson, (wrichardson@usgs.gov, 608-781-6231).
Floodplain Lakes Water Quality
- Brian Gray, Jim Rogala and Jeff Houser (UMESC) addressed models of water quality data from multiple floodplain lakes. The proposed methods address that variables from such studies are typically correlated within lakes, and that covariate associations may also vary by lake.
Long Term Ecological Study Data Analyses
- Brian Gray (UMESC) contributed a chapter titled, “Variance components estimation for continuous and discrete data, with emphasis on cross-classified sampling designs” to the book, “Design and analysis of long-term ecological monitoring studies” available from the Cambridge University Press.
Nitrogen Biogeochemistry in the Upper Mississippi River
- William Richardson (UMESC) will travel to Salzburg, Austria (June 28-July 5) to give an invited Plenary talk at the University of Salzburg's Symposium on BioScience and Health. Richardson's talk titled, “Nitrogen biogeochemistry in the Mississippi River: effects on river biology and the Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone,” will focus on anthropogenic caused changes in environmental health and ecosystem function of the Upper Mississippi River and Gulf of Mexico. Richardson's requested task was to introduce aspects of f large-scale spatial impacts of landuse on environmental health. Topics to be touched on will be drawn from USGS research and include the effects of agricultural land use on nutrient flux to rivers and Gulf of Mexico, river-floodplain connectivity, nitrogen cycling, river productivity and lipid production, and potential drivers of Gulf of Mexico zone of hypoxia. The travel and symposium are sponsored the by the University of Salzburgs’ Ph.D. program, and the Center for Immunity in Cancer and Allergy.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Perfluorinated Compounds and Tree Swallows
- Christine Custer and Thomas Custer (UMESC) published the results from a study of the exposure to, and effects of, perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) on tree swallows at a highly contaminated lake in the greater Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN area. This is one of the few studies of the effects of PFCs on songbirds in the U.S., and although negative reproductive effects were seen, further research is needed to increase the sample size and confidence around these results. In addition to effects of PFCs on nesting tree swallows, the distribution of PFC congeners in various tissues, at various locations, and amongst eggs within a clutch was examined.
White-nosed Bat Syndrome Symposium
- Wayne Thogmartin (UMESC) presented the results of research describing the fate of bat populations reduced to small sizes by a fast-spreading fungal disease, at the White-nose Syndrome Symposium in Madison, WI, June 4-7.
Upper Mississippi River Freshwater Mussel Populations
- Teresa Newton, Steve Zigler, James Rogala, Brian Gray (UMESC), and Mike Davis (MN DNR) published, “Population assessment and potential functional roles of native mussels in the Upper Mississippi River.” The team conducted large-scale systematic surveys for native mussels within three reaches of the Upper Mississippi River, and documented mussel communities composed of 16-23 species actively recruiting new cohorts into their populations. They also noted Mussels filtered a significant amount of water (range, 0.05–0.07m3m-2 d-1) over a 480km reach of the Upper Mississippi River – amounting to a filtration rate of 53.1 million m3 day-1. As result, it was noted that collectively the data suggests native mussels play an integral role in this ecosystem by sequestering suspended materials that can be used by other benthic organisms.
- Steve Zigler, Teresa Newton, Jim Rogala (UMESC), and Mike Davis (MN DNR) published the results from their study to evaluate patterns in mussel assemblages in the Upper Mississippi River (UMR). Among the items they noted; Large-scale patterns in mussel assemblages may be related to other longitudinal trends in the system including geomorphology, water quality, and abundances of fish species that serve as hosts for glochidial larvae; and their results suggest that management goals and actions in the UMR may need to account for important differences in mussel assemblages that occur among reaches.
Other
Acronyms
AOC – Area of Concern
BUFF – Buffalo National River
BUI – Beneficial Use Impairments
EPA – Environmental Protection Agency
FWS – U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
GLFC – Great Lakes Fishery Commission
GLRI – Great Lakes Restoration Initiative
NPS – National Park Service
PFCs – perfluorinated compounds
UMESC – Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center
UMR – Upper Mississippi River
UMRR-EMP – Upper Mississippi River Restoration - Environmental Management Program
USGS – U.S. Geological Survey
VIP – Vegetation Inventory and Monitoring Program
URL: http://www.umesc.usgs.gov/outreach/highlights/2012_june_umesc_highlights.html
Page Contact Information: Contacting the Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center
Page Last Modified:
November 27, 2012
