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Ecosystem Evaluation of Lake Superior Regulation Plans. Status Update Ecosystem Technical Working Group. Draft Ecosystem Planning Objectives. Manage water level regimes to support diverse biotic communities and natural ecosystem functions in the Upper Great Lakes. Rationale:
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Ecosystem Evaluation of Lake Superior Regulation Plans Status Update Ecosystem Technical Working Group
Draft Ecosystem Planning Objectives Manage water level regimes to support diverse biotic communities and natural ecosystem functions in the Upper Great Lakes. Rationale: Biotic communities and the Great Lakes ecosystem have co-evolved and adapted to natural hydrologic regimes. By restoring natural water level and hydrologic regimes, native species and natural ecosystem functions will be enhanced and preserved.
Second Site Coordinators Workshop Purpose The Site Coordinators workshop is designed to explore how the different site research groups will work with the modelers to develop site-specific PI metric/water level-flow attribute relationships that will be built into the IERM2 and SVM models. • At this workshop, each of the Site Coordinators is expected to prepare and present their “best guess” of the conceptual and actual relationships between critical PI metrics and water level/flow regime attributes for the sites that they are working on. They should be prepared to explain how they derived the relationships and be able to describe any issues or problems that they encountered along the way. • Methods and results will be shared between groups and potential solutions will be sought for common issues and problems. The Site Coordinators will work cooperatively with the modeling team to validate the conceptual basis for the IERM2 and Shared Vision models.
Second Site Coordinators Workshop Goals 1) Establish methods and protocols to further develop, test, and validate PI metric/water/flow attribute relationships for each of the study sites. 2) Establish an evaluation framework that: a) links ecological responses of individual sites to changes in water level/flow regime, and b) assesses the nature of those responses with respect to ecological thresholds. 3) Design and construct an initial conceptual IERM2 model based on the PI metric/water-flow attribute relationships and the evaluation framework developed at this workshop.
Second Site Coordinators Workshop Objectives • At the end of the workshop, we need to have • List of final site locations, including coordinates for inclusion into the IERM2 model; • List of critical site data gaps (e.g. base maps, bathymetry, aerial photography, satellite imagery, baseline characterization of PI metrics); • Plan to address those data gaps within the next two months; • Draft set of PI metric/water level-flow attributes relationships in the form of multiple water level-flow attribute response curves for each of the final study sites; • Data gaps and approach to filling gaps and refine the PI metric/water level-flow attribute relationships; • Evaluation framework that links ecological responses to ecological thresholds; and • Workplan that specifies actions, deliverables, and a timeline for completion of the ETWG ecological assessment for the September 2010 deadline, recognizing that further evolution of our models and assessment will be built into the IUGLS adaptive management framework.
ETWG Challenges • Contract Issues Finally Resolved • Contextual Narrative • February 24 – 25 Workshop • Identifying Appropriate Water Level Sequences • Developing Water Level Regime Response Curves • Commitment to Thresholds and Triggers • IERM2 Model • Fill Data Gaps (Bathymetry, Imagery) Over Very Short Time Frame • Prioritizing Activities to Maximize Efficiency/ Results • Managing Multiple Efforts/Processes • Upper Lakes • St. Marys River • Adaptive Management/Climate Change
Descriptive Framework of Biological Condition Pristine Natural Variability Critical Threshold Degraded Davies and Jackson (2006), Bain (2007)
