Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center
June 2014 Activity Highlights
Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center
La Crosse, Wisconsin
Topics covered in the June activity report.
Aquatic Invasive Species
Asian Carp
- Christopher Rees (UMESC), Emy Monroe (USFWS) and Richard Lance (USACE) presented the results of an interagency, round-robin, double-blind environmental DNA (eDNA) marker validation study designed to validate and ultimately select the markers to be used within the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s (USFWS) eDNA Surveillance Program. Kelly Baerwaldt (USFWS) and Rees coordinated the USFWS workshop to review the available genetic markers for detecting silver and bigheaded carps, and describe USFWS plans for processing eDNA surveillance samples for the 2014 field season. The workshop was attended by several federal and state organizations, and held at the Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center (UMESC) in La Crosse, WI.
- Scientists from the USGS, Illinois Department of Natural Resources and Southern Illinois University released two podcasts on USGS YouTube on June 24 that showcase how agencies combined multiple Asian carp control technologies during field tests in a backwater of the Illinois River during 2013. The partnership conducted a three-day trial on the effectiveness of integrated pest management tools, including physical (water gun) and biological (algal food attractant) controls, and population and habitat monitoring technologies. Federal and state resource managers were provided with a demonstration of these tools during field trials. Five USGS science Centers, including the Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center, Columbia Environmental Research Center, Illinois Water Science Center, Great Lakes Science Center, and Western Fisheries Research Center participated in this effort. This work was funded by the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative and USGS. One podcast is a short version (trailer = http://gallery.usgs.gov/videos/813#.U8gV1bH5dyI) that provides a good overview of the project, field activities and tools. The longer version (Full = http://gallery.usgs.gov/videos/814#.U8gVu7H5dyJ) provides more detailed information on the research and tool development leading up to and including the field demonstration project.
Zebra Mussels
- James Luoma and Randy Hines (UMESC) traveled to Florence, WI for a public meeting on the dreissenid mussel control project UMESC is conducting in partnership with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and Marrone Bio Innovations. The project is scheduled to be conducted in Keyes Lake, WI during July 2014, to evaluate the use of Zequanox® to manage dreissenid mussels adhering to native mussels. The public hearing was held June 10, 2014.
Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI)
Project #80, Birds as Indicators of Contaminant Exposure in the Great Lakes.
- Christine Custer and Thomas Custer’s (UMESC) work with Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) project 80 was featured in, “Great Lakes Echo,” an online publication of the Knight Center for Environmental Journalism at Michigan State University, available at http://greatlakesecho.org/2014/05/30/birds-measure-contaminants/. GLRI project 80, “Birds as Indicators of Contaminant Exposure in the Great Lakes,” identifies significant sources and impacts of historical and newly emerging toxics to the Great Lakes ecosystem through broad surveillance as well as laboratory and field research of tree swallows and other bird species. The article highlights the many uses of the Custer's data in helping Great Lakes managers and regulators make scientifically based decisions, as well as, to assess the effectiveness of dredging and other remedies being used to clean up contaminated sediments in Areas of Concern (AOC) across the Great Lakes.
Minnesota Department of Natural Resources
- Kevin Kenow (UMESC) gave the invited presentation, “Unraveling Mysteries of the Common Loon,” to a meeting of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources State Park Naturalists Corps at Itasca State Park on June 11, 2014. The presentation was also open to the public.
National Park Service
Big Bend National Park
- Results from Richard Erickson’s multivariate statistical analysis of soil microbial communities and soil function, for a study examining soil response to climate change in Big Bend National Park, was recently published in Global Change Biology. The manuscript is associated with Erickson’s graduate work at Texas Tech University, in cooperation with Colorado State University, University of Western Sydney, University of California Santa Cruz, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The paper is available online at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/gcb.12418/abstract.
- Bell, C.W., D.T. Tissue, M.E. Loik, M.D. Wallenstein, V. Acosta-Martinez, R.A. Erickson, J.C. Zak. 2014. Soil microbial and nutrient responses to 7 years of seasonally altered precipitation in a Chihuahuan Desert grassland. Global Change Biology. 20:1657-1673. DOI:10.1111/gcb.12418.
Upper Mississippi River
Midwest Region Large River Initiative
- Ken Lubinski (UMESC) facilitated a meeting to give USGS partners an opportunity to review floodplain studies proposed under the Midwest Region’s Large River Initiative (LRI), June 17-18, 2014 in Bellevue, IA. The spatial focus of the meeting is floodplain habitat at the confluence of the Maquoketa and Mississippi Rivers being purchased by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR). The DNR will not repair a levee at the site, allowing the floodplain to reconnect with the river during flood pulses. The Iowa Water Science Center (WSC) installed a stream gage (with temperature and nutrient instruments) at the site earlier in 2014. USGS staff at the meeting will include Greg Nalley, Jessica Garrett (IA WSC), and Bob Swanson (NE WSC). Invited partners include the Iowa DNR, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Natural Resources Conservation Service, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Eastern Tallgrass Prairie and Big Rivers Landscape Conservation Cooperative, Illinois Natural History Survey, University of Iowa, The Nature Conservancy, American Rivers, and Pheasants Forever. Partner responses to the proposed research will help the LRI team set research priorities and refine the site study plan.
Upper Mississippi River Restoration – Environmental Management Program
Free Floating Plants in the UMR
- Jeff Houser, James Rogala, Ben Campbell (UMESC) Shawn Giblin, John Sullivan, and Heidi Langrehr (WI DNR) published the results from a study examining free-floating plants (FFP) in the Upper Mississippi River (UMR). The UMR has experienced a large increase in FFP comprised of duckweeds and filamentous algae in recent years. These FFP can form dense mats which have been shown to create low oxygen conditions and reduce fish and invertebrate biomass. During many years, a large proportion of backwater habitat is covered by these mats resulting in poor fish and wildlife habitat and reduced recreational opportunities. While much of the emphasis regarding excessive phosphorus and nitrogen loading to the UMR has focused on “The Dead Zone” in the Gulf of Mexico, it is becoming increasingly evident that high nutrient concentrations can have effects on the local ecosystem as well. The study was funded by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Upper Mississippi River Restoration, Long Term Resource Monitoring Program element. The manuscript is available online athttp://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs13157-013-0508-8.
- Giblin, S.M., J.N. Houser, J.F. Sullivan, H.A. Langrehr, J.T. Rogala, B.D. Campbell. 2013. Thresholds in the Response of Free-Floating Plant Abundance to Variation in Hydraulic Connectivity, Nutrients, and Macrophyte Abundance in a Large Floodplain River. Wetlands. DOI:10.1007/s13157-013-0508-8.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Assessing the Impact of Wind Energy on Wildlife
- Julie Beston (GECSC) presented, “Assessing the Impact of Wind Energy on Wildlife,” at UMESC in La Crosse, WI, June 4, 2014. Beston is working with Wayne Thogmartin, Jessica Stanton, and Richard Erickson to assess the potential impacts of wind energy projects on wildlife and has developed a prioritization scheme which takes into account both the current conservation status of a species and its risk potential from wind turbines. Beston’s presentation covered the metrics developed and how they are being applied to avian species, as well as current and future research projects.
Bird Conservation in the Midwestern Prairie Hardwood Transition
- Wayne Thogmartin, Shawn Crimmins (UMESC), and Jennie Pearce (Pearce & Associates Ecological Research) published results of research describing conservation design considerations for focal bird species in the upper Midwestern United States. Their work examined the difficulty of attaining population goals for species which have competing habitat interests, in part because current goals for species aim to return species abundance to mid-1960s levels. They found that strategies for achieving regional population targets for forest bird species would be difficult under even ideal circumstances, and even more so if maintenance of grassland bird populations is also desired. Considerable conversion of agricultural environments to uses more conducive to grasslands would be necessary to reach mid-1960s population levels, a conversion that is likely not societally desirable. The publication is available at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320714002298.
- Thogmartin, W.E., S.M. Crimmins, J. Pearce. 2014. Prioritizing bird conservation actions in the prairie hardwood transition of the Midwestern United States. Biological Conservation. 176:212-223. DOI: 10.1016/j.biocon.2014.06.002.
BatTool Model Improvements: Anthropogenic Activities
- Richard Erickson, Wayne Thogmartin (UMESC), and Jennifer Szymanski (USFWS) published the source code and user information for the computer model BatTool, created to analyze potential threats to Myotis species of bats. Thogmartin originally created the population models used by BatTool to study the potential effects of White Nose Syndrome. Erickson programmed the model in the R programming language, and together they expanded BatTool so it could be used to study anthropogenic activities like the potential effects of wind energy developments. BatTool contains a command line option for modelers accustomed to working with computer scripts, and a graphical user interface (GUI) so the program would be more accessible to decision makers within the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The publication and source code are available online, at http://www.scfbm.org/content/9/1/9.
- Erickson, R.A., W.E. Thogmartin, J.A. Szymanski. 2014. BatTool: an R package with GUI for assessing the effect of White-nose syndrome and other take events on Myotis spp. of bats. Source Code for Biology and Medicine. 9:9. DOI:10.1186/1751-0473-9-9.
Acronyms
AOC – Area of Concern
DNR – Department of Natural Resources
eDNA – Environmental DNA
FFP – Free Floating Plants
GECSC – Geosciences and Environmental Change Sciences Center
GLRI – Great Lakes Restoration Initiative
GUI – Graphical User Interface
LRI – Large River Initiative
UMESC – Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center
UMR – Upper Mississippi River
UMRR-EMP – Upper Mississippi River Restoration - Environmental Management Program
USACE – U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
USDA – U.S. Department of Agriculture
USFWS – U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
USGS – U.S. Geological Survey
WSC – Water Science Center
URL: http://www.umesc.usgs.gov/outreach/highlights/2014_june_umesc_highlights.html
Page Contact Information: Contacting the Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center
Page Last Modified:
July 17, 2014
