Survey design to assess condition of wetlands in the United States

Olsen, Anthony R.; Kincaid, Thomas M.; Kentula, Mary E.; Weber, Matt

doi:10.1007/s10661-019-7322-6

Cited by 18 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…The analytical goal of the assessment is to produce estimates of the number of lakes (or percent of lake number) falling into a condition class or stressor level based on the indicator data and the weights from the survey design [49]. Examples of how this was done for lakes and wetlands are presented in [21,50]. The weight assigned to an individual lake is an estimate of the number of lakes in the target population represented by that lake and is used to develop a cumulative picture of the total target population.…”

Section: Population Estimatesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Jewels across the Landscape: Monitoring and Assessing the Quality of Lakes and Reservoirs in the United States

Peck¹,

Paulsen²,

Kaufmann³

et al. 2020

Water Quality - Science, Assessments and Policy

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An early naturalist described lakes as "jewels" across the landscape and indeed they were…at the end of the nineteenth century. As we settled the country and began to utilize the lake resource for our needs, things changed. Additionally, our needs for water brought about the construction of impoundments from ice ponds to small stock ponds up to mainstem impoundments along our major rivers. The lake resource in the United States now includes natural lakes in our northern tier of states, unique physiographic regions such as Florida and the Sand Hills of Nebraska, and the mountainous regions, and impoundments scattered across the entire landscape. In this chapter, we will describe efforts by an unique partnership between the individual states and tribal nations of the USA and the US Environmental Protection Agency to monitor and assess these systems. These efforts go beyond single water quality (chemistry) issues and include assessments targeting the goal of the Clean Water Act, namely, restoring, maintaining, and protecting the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the nation's lakes and reservoirs.

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Section: Population Estimatesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Jewels across the Landscape: Monitoring and Assessing the Quality of Lakes and Reservoirs in the United States

Peck¹,

Paulsen²,

Kaufmann³

et al. 2020

Water Quality - Science, Assessments and Policy

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“…In doing so, we also used a proven method for selecting a representative, spatially balanced sample of wetlands across a broad spatial area (Stevens and Olsen, 2004;Stevens and Jensen, 2007;U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 2016b;Olsen et al, 2019). While the case study was specific to the PPR, the overall methodologies and approach are applicable to other areas and wetland types, although modifications to metrics and scoring criteria likely would be required.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using a vegetation index to assess wetland condition in the Prairie Pothole Region of North America

Tangen

Bansal

Jones

et al. 2022

Front. Environ. Sci.

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Wetlands deliver a suite of ecosystem services to society. Anthropogenic activities, such as wetland drainage, have resulted in considerable wetland loss and degradation, diminishing the intrinsic value of wetland ecosystems worldwide. Protecting remaining wetlands and restoring degraded wetlands are common management practices to preserve and reclaim wetland benefits to society. Accordingly, methods for monitoring and assessing wetlands are required to evaluate their ecologic condition and outcomes of restoration activities. We used an established methodology for conducting vegetation-based assessments and describe a case study consisting of a wetland condition assessment in the Prairie Pothole Region of the North American Great Plains. We provide an overview of an existing method for selecting wetlands to sample across broad geographic distributions using a spatially balanced statistical design. We also describe site assessment protocols, including vegetation survey methods, and how field data were applied to a vegetation index that categorized wetlands according to ecologic condition. Results of the case study indicated that vegetation communities in nearly 50% of the surveyed wetlands were in very poor or poor condition, while only about 25% were considered good or very good. Approximately 70% of wetlands in native grasslands were categorized as good or very good compared to only 12% of those in reseeded grasslands (formerly cropland). In terms of informing restoration and management activities, results indicated that improved restoration practices could include a greater focus on establishing natural vegetation communities, and both restored and native prairie wetlands would benefit from enhanced management of invasive species.

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“…The S&T Program mapped additional plots on the Pacific Coast at the request of the NWCA to assure sites would be selected for sampling along the coast due to the lower frequency of wetland occurrence in the Western US than in other parts of the country (Figure 1). The NWCA design allocated site locations by state and wetland class, generating 1800 potential site locations to ensure approximately 900 sites meeting target criteria would be available for sampling [12,17]. Nine-hundred sites allow evaluation of different wetland types in the conterminous US and five major ecoregions.…”

Section: Nwca Survey Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As part of the design process, weights were assigned to each of the 1800 potential site locations that indicate the wetland area (i.e., the number of hectares) of the NWCA target population represented by the site (Olsen et al [17]). After the 967 sites were visited, the weights were adjusted to account for the inability to sample sites, for example, due to denial of access, a site being inaccessible (i.e., safety issues), or a site failing to meet the target criteria (i.e., non-target).…”

Section: Map Of the 967 Site Locations Sampled In The 2011 National Wmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Wetland Assessment: Beyond the Traditional Water Quality Perspective

Kentula¹,

Nahlik²,

Paulsen³

et al. 2020

Water Quality - Science, Assessments and Policy

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Use of water chemistry or water quality data as the sole indicator to determine if aquatic ecosystems meet restoration objectives or Clean Water Act criteria is not possible for wetland resources because surface water presence varies across wetland types. The 2011, National Wetland Condition Assessment (NWCA) assessed 967 sites representing 25,153,681 ha of wetland across the conterminous US. Surface water could be collected at 537 sites representing only 41% of the wetland population area and under-representing particular wetland types. These results motivated the authors to introduce the concept of aquatic resource quality, the condition of an ecosystem based on the integrated assessment of physical, chemical, and biological indicators, as the goal of monitoring and assessment of aquatic systems. The NWCA is an example of the use of aquatic resource quality. The survey successfully reported on wetland condition using a biotic indicator (the vegetation multimetric index) and the relative extent and relative risk of stressors using 10 physical, chemical, and biological indicators to report on aquatic resource quality. The NWCA demonstrated that aquatic resource quality can be consistently evaluated regardless of surface water presence. Consequently, we recommend aquatic resource quality as the goal of aquatic ecosystem monitoring and assessment.

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Survey design to assess condition of wetlands in the United States

Cited by 18 publications

References 20 publications

Jewels across the Landscape: Monitoring and Assessing the Quality of Lakes and Reservoirs in the United States

Jewels across the Landscape: Monitoring and Assessing the Quality of Lakes and Reservoirs in the United States

Using a vegetation index to assess wetland condition in the Prairie Pothole Region of North America

Wetland Assessment: Beyond the Traditional Water Quality Perspective

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