Recipient Organization
STATE UNIV OF NEW YORK
(N/A)
SYRACUSE,NY 13210
Performing Department
Natural Heritage Program
Non Technical Summary
This project will result in detailed vegetation community information referenced to elevation in sixteen Lake Ontario and St.Lawrence River coastal wetlands on the US side, replicating previous efforts in Canada. The proposed work complements related work in Ontario wetlands and will allow the development of a lakewide, binational assessment of wetland status. These data can be used to support adaptive management of lake level dynamics and can integrate into wetland vegetation community modelling (i.e., refine Integrated Ecological Response Model (IERM) inputs and validate outputs) that was developed for the IJC's Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River Study (LOSLR).The project is being proposed by the Great Lakes- St. Lawrence River Adaptive Management Committee (GLAM) in support of the responsibilities of the Great Lakes Boards of Control. The GLAM Directive identifies the need to "provide information to the Boards regarding the effects that the stmctures approved in the Commission's Orders of Approval and Directives have on levels and flows in the boundary waters and the impacts these have on the affected interests." In addition, the Directive indicates the GLAM committee should work to address a number of related questions including "How are other physical, chemical, biological, and/or socio-economic conditions of the system changing over time?''Collectively, these requirements in the GLAM Directive support the need to understand the impact of water level regulation on wetland plant diversity in coastal wetlands of Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River. Coastal wetlands provide an ecologically important and iologically diverse transitional zone between open water and land. The zone encompasses a series of ecological communities defined by their exposure to water. Adjacent the upland forests, the transition often begins with a band of shmbs. Continuing downslope, the shmb vegetation is replaced with the meadow marsh community, then cattail-dominated vegetation, the emergent and floating-leaved vegetation of slightly deeper water, and finally, submerged aquatic vegetation. Each of these vegetation types exist within a narrowly defined elevation zone and each supports its own host of flora and fauna. Many environmental performance indicators for LOSLR adaptive management depend on this zonation, including the Wetland Meadow Marsh Community; Spawning habitat supply for both low and high vegetation; the reproductive index and habitats for Least Bittern, Virginia Rail, Black Tern, Yellow Rail, and King Rail; and Muskrat house densities.The extent and condition of the natural communities within these vegetation zones, however, depend on lake level dynamics. An extended period of high water, for example, has the effect afforcing the shmb zone to a higher elevation and allowing expansion of the meadow marsh community. The initial LOSLR study suppmied the work that went into developing the model of this behavior of how wetlands respond to lake level dynamics. The LOSLR study also identified the meadow marsh performance indicator as one of the primmy metrics for assessing the environment and monitoring this indicator was identified as an important part of water-level adaptive management.Monitoring how coastal wetland habitats change with respect to elevation is important for teasing apart the influence of water-level management and other factors that play a role in habitat change, such as invasive species, alterations to adjacent upland areas, or other changes in hydrologic inputs. Monitoring wetland-elevation dynamics allows for improved models of how wetlands respond to waterlevel management by better refining the amount of delay in vegetation response and the magnitude of effect of flooding or dewatering events. With this project, it is expected to learn with higher precision the relationship among elevation, vegetation, and time.Awarded Start Date: 9/30/16Sponsor: US Department of State
Animal Health Component
(N/A)
Research Effort Categories
Basic
100%
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
2.1. TasksThe contractor shall conduct the following tasks:Task I: Project Kick-off MeetingThe contractor will organize and host a kick-off meeting with project supporters from the GLAM committee to outline project direction,objectives, and expectation. The meeting can be virtual (e.g. teleconference/webex).Task 2: Organize and Undertake Wetland SamplingUsing methods consistent with those defined by Grabas and Rokitnicki-Wojcik (2015. JGLR 41: 136-144.), the contractor will undertakewetland sampling for 16 wetlands sites on the US shoreline of Lake Ontario and the upper St. Lawrence River. The sampling siteswill be selected based on a range of factors including diversity in geomorphic type, accessibility for sampling, spatial coverage, andscreening for alternative factors that may impact vegetation response. The contractor is expected to provide necessaty staff (e.g. botanists, plant ecologists, field staff, and database managers) to complete the sampling as well as allnecessaty field equipment. The contractor will follow all applicable occupational health and safety requirements. The contractor is responsible for acquiring all necessarypermits for sampling on public lands and permissions for sampling on any private lands.Task 3: Post-Process Field Data and Organize in Relational DatabaseFollowing the field surveys, the contractor will undertake necessaty lab analysis for plant specimen processing and will organize allthe data in a relational database (Microsoft Access compatible). As part of the follow up lab work, the field data will be entered intothe relational database, quality checked, managed, and organized appropriately.Task 4: Prepare Summaty ReportThe contractor will prepare a summaty report providing information on the sampling sites, the data collection and analysis, and areviewof the field sampling results. The report will include an executive summaty outlining the approach and general findings from thefield survey and a lessons learned component that discusses how the project met deadlines and how successful the project was at attaining the sampling and analysis goals.Task 5: Presentation of Summaty ResultsA summaty presentation will be provided to interested members of the GLAM committee and other potential partners (e.g. membersof the Lake Ontario Lakewide Action and Management Plan) to discuss results and findings from the project. This may involve travelto a related meeting and the contractor should include a budget estimate for a potential meeting within the Lake Ontario basin and vicinity.
Project Methods
The project requires the sampling of 16 Lake Ontario and upper St. Lawrence River coastal wetlands on the US shoreline using amethodology that links vegetation to elevation. The collected data is required to suppmi comparison with previously collected wetlanddata on Lake Ontario on both the US and Canadian shoreline. As a result, the methods for the wetland surveys should follow those developed by the Canadian Wildlife Service- Ontario Region (CWS-ON), who recently published the approach in the Journal of GreatLakes Research (Grabas and Rokitnicki-Wojcik. 2015. JGLR 41: 136-144). The surveys should occur in September 2017. At eachwetland, 5 transects mnning perpendicular to shore will be sampled. Along each transect, survey-grade GPS (real-time kinematicRTK)will be used to target 20 em elevation increments from 74.0 to 76.0 m IGLD elevations. Each targeted elevation will be sampledwith a 0.5 x 1.0 m quadrat and all plants will be identified and their relative covers estimated. This sampling approach ensures that vegetation zones that are typically found in Lake Ontario coastal wetlands are included in the survey and that the same elevations aresurveyed among sites. The sampling intensity requires support for additional staff time to enter, quality check, manage, and manipulatethe data in a complex relational database. Following the field sampling, the contractor will be expected to undertake necessatyplant sample identification in the lab, organize the data sets, and quality check the sampled data. The contractor will also prepare asummaty of the results including documentation of their field sampling locations.The contractor is expected already to possess experience undertaking wetland surveys for Lake Ontario coastal wetlands using methodssimilar to those described in Grab as and Rokitnicki-Wojcik. 2015. JGLR 41:136-144. They should also have experience summarizingand processing the field data (including quality control and checking) and preparing summmy results fi·om similar monitoring efforts.The contractor will be expected to provide project leadership and all necessmy staff and equipment for undertaking the field surveysand lab data analysis. The project lead must be an expert in coastal wetland monitoring with demonstrated experience working oncoastal wetland monitoring projects on Lake Ontario. The contractor and associated staff are expected to undertake the project in asafe manner adhering to all necessary occupational health and safety protocols for such work.