The URL can be used to link to this page

Home My WebLink AboutNCDENR_BiofidelityRTI International RTI International is a trade name of Research Triangle Institute.www.rti.org Biological Fidelity Analysis of Stream Classes - UPDATE Funded by: Environmental Defense Fund Conducted by: RTI International RTI International Outline of Presentation Background Current Status: –Site selection –Aquatic biota –Stream classification –Preliminary statistical analysis results Individual species Community assemblage RTI International Project Objectives: To adopt a stream classification system that represents the distribution of aquatic biota in North Carolina –evaluate the 7 stream classes of the Environmental Flow Specialist (EFS) hydrological stream classification system: A. Coastal Streams B. Small Stable Streams F. Medium Stable Streams C. Large Stable Streams E. Large Piedmont Rivers D. Small Flashy Streams G. Small Seasonal RTI International Project Objectives: To adopt a stream classification system that represents the distribution of aquatic biota in North Carolina –Compare fidelities of aquatic biota to different stream classification systems –If necessary, modify the EFS stream classes to more accurately describe the distribution of biota RTI International Study Methods: Aquatic Biota and Datasets: –Fish –Benthos –Aquatic species in Natural Heritage Program database RTI International Aquatic Biota and Datasets Aquatic Biota Database Benthos NCDENR DWQ Benthic Macroinvertebrate Fish NCDENR DWQ Fish Community, USGS NAQWA, WRC Trout, WRC Diversity (Gameland Surveys) Natural Heritage Inventory NCDENR Natural Heritage Program RTI International Study Methods: Aquatic Biota and Datasets: –Fish –Benthos –Aquatic species in Natural Heritage Program database Sites: –185 NHD+ catchments with USGS gages (used to develop EFS stream classes) –~600 NHD+ catchments with stream classes based on WaterFALL hydrologic data Aquatic biota data within each NHD+ catchment will be paired with the assigned stream class RTI International Study Methods: Stream Classifications Systems: –EFS –McManamay et al. (2011) –Konrad (in review) Statistical Analyses: –Random Forest (individual species) –Similarity Analyses (communities) RTI International Current Status: Site Selection Aquatic Biota Stream Classifications Preliminary Statistical Analyses RTI International 1. Site Selection 185 NHD+ catchments with EFS stream classes 527 NHD+ catchments: –equal representation of 3 physiographic regions –“minimally impaired” condition: Water quality: Excellent, Good or Good-Fair Benthos site condition Water quantity (instream flow alteration): total drainage area of monitoring station is at least twice the size of the total drainage area of the closest upstream flow alteration –Within each physiographic region, proportional representation of streams with and without upstream flow alterations –Random selection of qualifying sites RTI International 1. Site Selection Final number of sites (criteria applied to 185 NHD+ catchments + new sites): –578: 217 mountains 231 piedmont 130 coastal plain RTI International 1. Site Selection RTI International 2. Aquatic Biota All monitoring sites within 578 NHD+ catchments: –Fish, benthos, NHP aquatic species –30 years of data (1981-2010) assuming stream classes based on ~ 2010 condition Aquatic Biota Number of Monitoring Sites Benthos 636 Fish 238 Natural Heritage Inventory 656 RTI International 3. Stream Classification Stream classes based on WaterFALL hydrologic data: –Generate for all 578 NHD+ catchments: 2006 NLCD 40 years of climate date (1967-2006) Instream flow alterations (dams, withdrawals and discharges – 1995-2012) –Plan to generate these stream classes within the next couple of months –Calibrate and QAQC stream classes with a comparison against classes determined by USGS gage data RTI International 3. Stream Classification Stream classification systems: –EFS (7 classes), McManamay et al. (2011) (8 classes) –Konrad (in review) (8 classes) RTI International 4. Preliminary Statistical Analyses Analyses: –Random Forest (individual species) Presence/absence –Similarity Analysis (communities) Presence/absence Abundance Dataset: –Benthos (106 out of 185 NHD+ catchments with EFS stream classes) –Taxonomic ambiguity resolved –Remove Parent – Keep Child (resolved to Genus level) dataset used in both sets of analyses RTI International Number of NHD catchments for each stream class 4. Preliminary Statistical Analyses Stream Class Number of NHD+ Catchments A14 B41 C6 D30 E1 F8 G 6 RTI International Random Forest is a decision-tree modeling and classification approach (Cutler et al., 2007) A decision tree is a predictive model that uses a set of binary rules (yes/no) to split the data based on the predictor variable Random Forest Approach All Stream Class and Aquatic Biology Data Stream Class A Species 1 present Species 2 present Species 3 present Species 4 present YesYes No No Stream Class B RTI International Random Forest Analysis -Biological fidelity to stream class = high probability = medium probability = low probability = absent Aquatic species Stream Class ABCDEFG 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 RTI International = high probability = medium probability = low probability = absent Random Forest Analysis –NO Biological fidelity to stream class Aquatic species Stream Class ABCDEFG 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 RTI International 4. Preliminary Statistical Analyses Low Medium High Importance:ABCDEFG Ceratopsyche 0.032 0.034 0.005 0.076 0.000 0.012 0.032 Serratella 0.031 0.008 ‐0.003 0.071 0.000 0.000 ‐0.010 Heptagenia 0.013 ‐0.003 0.034 0.025 0.000 0.001 0.010 Pycnopsyche ‐0.012 0.011 ‐0.006 0.019 0.000 0.004 0.027 Phylocentropus 0.038 0.001 0.001 0.002 0.000 0.000 0.005 Cardiocladius 0.000 ‐0.004 ‐0.004 0.001 0.000 0.016 0.001 Pteronarcys 0.007 0.000 0.013 0.019 0.000 0.004 0.004 Neophylax 0.014 0.008 0.011 0.013 0.000 ‐0.006 ‐0.015 Paragnetina 0.004 0.005 0.008 0.013 0.000 0.000 0.007 Brachycentrus ‐0.006 0.000 ‐0.001 0.013 0.000 ‐0.005 0.004 Promoresia 0.007 0.000 ‐0.003 0.012 0.000 0.004 0.008 Epeorus 0.008 0.005 0.008 0.011 0.000 ‐0.005 0.009 Microtendipes ‐0.010 0.006 0.010 0.011 0.000 ‐0.008 0.010 Taxa Stream Class RTI International 4. Preliminary Statistical Analyses Only ~10% of taxa (41 out of 408) showed a higher fidelity to one stream class over another Probability of general occurring in each stream class are probably low Some of the results may be an artifact of the low numbers of NHD+ catchments for each stream class (1- 41) Minimum number of NHD+ catchments for more robust analyses is ~ 40. 36% of taxa had < 3 records Fidelities could be further confounded by including all benthos sites in the analysis RTI International Questions?