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Description of Work The sensitivity of various species of freshwater mussels (Unioidea) to range of inorganic and organic chemicals has been evaluated in acute toxicity tests and the sensitivity of freshwater mussels to a range of inorganic chemicals has been evaluated in chronic toxicity tests. However, the chronic toxicity of organic chemicals has only been evaluated with a limited number of mussel species or for a limited number of organic chemicals. The objective of this study will be to evaluate methods for conducting 90-d water only exposures with juvenile mussels and conducted chronic 28-d toxicity tests with at least organic chemicals of concern and two commonly tested species of mussels (Lampsilis siliquoidea,...
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Description of Work U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scientists will assess the hydrology, water quality, and response to simulated changes in phosphorus loading of the Winnebago Pool Lakes, Wisconsin. Total annual phosphorus and total suspended sediment loads will be estimated at various monitored locations throughout the Upper Fox and Wolf River Watershed using a rating curve method or GCLAS with streamflow monitored by the USGS and water quality data collected by the Wisconsin DNR. Monitoring at three new sites was done as part of this study. Data from these three sites will be used to help calibrate the SWAT model for the basin. These loads will be supplied to the Cadmus Group, Inc. to help calibrate SWAT models...
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Description of Work The GLRI Rivermouths Project (template 82) is designed to enhance our understanding of how rivermouths function at both regional and local scales by 1) developing a rivermouth classification system, based on a broad scale database covering all Great Lakes rivermouths (>2000); 2) creating a science-based understanding of how the ecological structure and function of rivermouths are linked both to the landscapes they drain and to the Lakes with which they mix; and 3) increasing the public and scientific profile of these ecosystems by connecting researchers and natural resource managers through a collaborative dialog. The long-term goal is to provide enhanced guidance for restoration and rehabilitation...
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Description of Work U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scientists are improving the health of the Great Lakes sport and commercial fisheries by documenting sources and the determining the processes that control mercury entering food webs, and helping to evaluate the implications for public health. Our scientists will provide decision-makers with a scientific understanding of mercury-source profiles, the relative importance of the various sources, and the expected environmental responses to Great Lakes wasters and fisheries to altered mercury loading and restoration actions. This information is intended to inform and maximize the benefit of the Great Lakes restoration program. The USGS will develop mercury and methylmercury...
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Description of Work U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) will develop and provide forecasting tools for managers to determine how water withdrawals or other hydrologic or land use changes in watersheds may affect Great Lakes ecosystems. This information will help guide restoration efforts to achieve maximum effectiveness and success. Project provides unified information across the Great Lakes Basin for ecosystem restoration, assessment, and management by incorporating models that relate changes in landscape and hydrologic variables and stresses to changes in ecosystem function. The project relies upon regionally consistent hydrologic, biologic, and geospatial data to generate regionally consistent estimates, models, and...
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Description of Work The USGS measures water levels at the adult Asian Carp barrier fence in Eagle Marsh and reports those data hourly to a USGS website. The barrier fence is an 8 foot tall, nearly 1,200 foot chain link fence across a part of Eagle Marsh. When flooding raises water levels at the fence, alerts are sent to State and local biologists and resource staff who respond and inspect the fence line for adult Asian Carp and debris accumulation. The USGS also measures streamflow and water temperature at two sites downstream from Eagle Marsh to evaluate how precipitation in area watersheds causes streamflow and water levels to increase and how temporary changes in flow directions downstream on Graham McCulloch...
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This network of inland streams, wetlands and water bodies is a composite of two layers from the National Hydrography Dataset Plus (NHD+ flow lines and water bodies), and all available wetlands from the National Wetlands Inventory (NWI) and Wisconsin Wetlands Inventory (WWI). In combination, these layers provide a network template of inland corridors for assessing relative vulnerability to future invasions of Phragmites.
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Description of Work Goal of this task is to conduct studies to determine the acute and chronic toxicity of sulfate (as sodium sulfate) to early life stages of: (1) fish (fathead minnow, Pimephales promelas), (2) snails (pond snail Lymnaea stagnalis), and (3) mussels (fatmucket, Lampsilis siliquoidea).
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These data represent coastal corridors exposed by lake levels reduced from mean 2009 water surface elevations. These elevations were established by values published by the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), and based on a network of multiple gages within each lake. The corridors were derived from two data sources: 5-m resolution lidar-based topo-bathymetry produced by the USACE Joint Airborne Lidar-Based Technical Center of eXpertise (JALBTCX) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Coastal Services Center, and bathymetric contour lines produced by the NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (GLERL). The JALBTCX lidar-based topo-bathymetry were used to produce representations...
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Description of Work A number of field studies have shown that mayflies (Ephemeroptera) tend to be more sensitive than other benthic macroinvertebrate taxa to elevated levels of total dissolved solids in streams impacted by mining. Until relatively recently, difficulties with culturing have precluded the use of mayflies as laboratory toxicity testing organisms; however, researchers at Stroud Water Research Center have found parthenogenic species that readily reproduce under laboratory conditions, and researchers at the US EPA EERD laboratory have developed laboratory cultured diets for mayflies that will help to move toward standardization of methods. Recent efforts at the Illinois Natural History Survey built upon...
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Description of Work This study will generate bed sediment toxicity and benthic community data needed to test two related hypotheses that address the two criteria for delisting the benthos BUI. The first hypothesis is that bed sediments at selected sample locations in the AOC (in three tributaries and in the St. Lawrence River) are no more toxic to the test species than bed sediments collected from control sites located outside (generally upstream from) the AOC. Acute (survival) and chronic (growth) whole bed-sediment toxicity tests will be conducted using the midge (Chironomus dilutus), following standard methods (USEPA 1994; USEPA 2000). The second hypothesis is that the benthic macroinvertebrate communities from...
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Description of Work A Department of Interior team, including U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), and National Park Service (NPS), is working to determine why botulism outbreaks, which have killed large numbers of fish and fish-eating birds, are occurring in the Great Lakes. This project will determine: 1) a quick assay test for the presence of the toxin , 2) how birds are exposed to the toxins, and 3) what factors combined trigger an outbreak. This information will be used to formulate management strategies. Botulism intoxication is caused by ingestion of neurotoxins produced by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum. Periodic outbreaks of type E botulism have resulted in die-offs of fish...
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Description of Work USGS scientists are developing science based forecasting tools that capture changes to water flows and discharges of nutrients and sediments to the Great Lakes. The work done by this project provides managers with forecasting tools for predicting the combined effects of climate and land use changes that will help them identify and prioritize the sites best suited for restoration efforts. USGS scientists will use remote-sensing data to establish a baseline understanding of current distributions of invasive wetland plants and then forecast potential invasion corridors. Alterations to the Great Lakes shoreline or water-level patterns associated with global climate change could have significant impacts...
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Description of Work Elevated concentrations of major ions are associated with a variety of discharges to aquatic ecosystems, including urban wastewater, mountain top removal and valley fill operations, and coal bed methane production. There is considerable uncertainty regarding the toxicity of major ions to aquatic organisms, particularly given the variability of constituents that comprise these effluents. Because the relative toxicity of major ions is highly variable, predicting effects based on conductivity, total dissolved solids (TDS) or other composite measures may be simplistic. Furthermore, most of the available information on sensitivity of aquatic organisms to major ions has been derived from short-term...
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Contaminant exposure of tree swallows, Tachycineta bicolor, nesting in the Great Lakes basin was assessed in 2010 to 2014. Tree swallow nestlings were collected from 69 sites which included multiple sites at some of the 27 Areas of Concern (AOCs) and at nine non-AOC sites. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAHs), polychlorinated biphenyl (PCBs), and polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDEs) concentrations were measured in nestling stomach contents. Concentrations of PCBs and PBDEs were measured in nestling carcasses. Perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) were measured in nestling plasma. Pooled dietary concentrations of total PAHs were highest at the Rouge River, MI AOC (1,856 ng/g wet weight) and lowest at White Lake, MI...
Description of WorkExcessive nutrient and sediment concentrations and loads have been documented in many tributaries to the Great Lakes. Many efforts have been made during the first 5 years of GLRI to reduce nutrient and sediment concentrations in streams and rivers throughout the Great Lakes Basin, and these efforts will continue during Phase II of GLRI. In order to determine the success of these efforts at improving water quality, it is important to document in a systematic manner the water quality and loading from key tributaries to the Great Lakes.Goals & ObjectivesThe objectives of this project are to: 1) Collect streamflow and samples for sediment and nutrients for major streams that are tributary to the Great...
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Description of Work Water guns are being placed in backwater habitats where bighead carp and silver carp currently are to see if they can be used to deny fish access to these preferred off-channel habitats or trap them in areas where they can be captured and removed. The energy emitted from water guns is being measured to determine the risk associated with water gun operation near navigation structures. These research topics are being investigated under laboratory (USGS Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center, La Crosse, WI) and field conditions (for example, a backwater area of the Illinois River near Morris, IL). Relevance & Impact If water guns alter the behavior of bighead carp or silver carp then they...
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Description of Work The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is continuing to develop and evaluate existing and new dreissenid mussel control tools for use in an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) program for dreissenid mussels. Information developed will help guide the management and control of dreissenid mussels in open water environments and it will determine how restoration efforts may be implemented after dreissenid mussel infestations occur. The USGS has conducted a rigorous evaluation of Zequanox for dreissenid mussel control including recent work to evaluate the non-target animal impacts to the critical Great Lakes fish species, lake trout and lake sturgeon. Additional work has been completed to evaluate the effects...
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Description of Work The Great Lakes ecosystem has undergone major changes over the last two decades related to the invasion of Dreissenid mussels, increased water clarity, increased benthic algae and associated water quality problems. For reasons not yet entirely understood, and that have bi-national significance, water column total phosphorus has not significantly increased over the last decade but the relative percent of the more biologically available dissolved phosphorus has increased. The filtering action of Dreissenid mussels has been shown to increase concentrations of dissolved phosphorus in the water column immediately above mussel beds and this had been hypothesized as one explanation for the increase...
map background search result map search result map Inland Coastal Zone Corridor Network and Vulnerability to Invasive Phragmites Coastal Corridors Vulnerable Under Reduced Lake Level Scenarios Benthic Communities and Sediment Toxicity in the St Lawrence River AOC Watershed modeling for stream ecosystem management Lakewide Management Plan Capacity Support by U.S. Geological Survey - LAKE HURON Development of Watershed TMDLs in the Great Lakes Basin Mercury Cycling and Bioaccumulation in the Great Lakes Toxicity Testing of Mayflies Generation of Chronic Toxicity Data for Sulfate Microcosms to Evaluate Elevated Major Ions Toxicity of Organic Chemicals in Mussels Forecasting Great Lakes Basin Responses to Future Change Characterizing Rivermouth Ecosystems Understanding Nutrient Loading Impacts on Lake Ontario Nearshore Waters at the Niagara River Connecting Channel Birds as indicators of contaminants in the Great Lakes Benthic Communities and Sediment Toxicity in the St Lawrence River AOC Development of Watershed TMDLs in the Great Lakes Basin Forecasting Great Lakes Basin Responses to Future Change Understanding Nutrient Loading Impacts on Lake Ontario Nearshore Waters at the Niagara River Connecting Channel Lakewide Management Plan Capacity Support by U.S. Geological Survey - LAKE HURON Mercury Cycling and Bioaccumulation in the Great Lakes Coastal Corridors Vulnerable Under Reduced Lake Level Scenarios Inland Coastal Zone Corridor Network and Vulnerability to Invasive Phragmites Toxicity Testing of Mayflies Generation of Chronic Toxicity Data for Sulfate Microcosms to Evaluate Elevated Major Ions Toxicity of Organic Chemicals in Mussels Birds as indicators of contaminants in the Great Lakes Watershed modeling for stream ecosystem management Characterizing Rivermouth Ecosystems