Aquatic Ecosystems

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https://hdl.handle.net/1813/113371

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Species interactions may enhance resilience and ecosystem services within an urban living shoreline project
Zarnoch, Chester B. (New York State Water Resources Institute, 2022)
Annual Report on the Ecological Monitoring of Dam Removal Projects in the Hudson River Estuary: 2020
Dietrich, Jeremy; Sullivan, Patrick (New York State Water Resources Institute, 2021)
The goal of this project is to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of likely dam removals. Monitoring pre-removal stream conditions will allow project partners to understand the biological, habitat, and physical responses in the stream compared to post-monitoring conditions.
The trophic state is dynamic: Understanding within and across year dynamics of nutrient controls on lake phytoplankton growth
Richardson, David C.; Elzey, Lissa; Williams, Reed; Wigdahl-Perry, Courtney; Yokota, Kiyoko (New York State Water Resources Institute, 2021)
Scientists, managers, and citizens use the concept of the trophic state to characterize lakes by categorizing them into oligo-, meso-, or eutrophic states based on a few snapshot measurements. However, lakes have seasonal variability in phytoplankton biomass with the possibility for periodic blooms that impair water quality and ecosystem services. First, we developed a dynamic mathematical simulation model to understand seasonal cycles of nutrient uptake and phytoplankton growth. We found predictable cycles of phytoplankton biomass and available nutrients related to seasonal internal loading. Second, we assessed three years of nutrient limitation data from in situ incubations in 9 regional lakes and found that most of the lakes had interannual variability in nutrient limitation type, with colimitation being most common. Together, these results support the need for a more dynamic framework based on function, process, and temporal change that would better inform management actions and understanding of lake ecosystems.
Mobile toolkit for rapid in-field screening of freshwater Harmful Algal Blooms
Richardson, Ruth (New York State Water Resources Institute, 2022)
This project aimed to develop inexpensive and rapid field screening tools for microcystin producing cyanobacterial Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs). During the 2020 HABs season, we trained 10 volunteers in Cayuga and Canandaigua Lakes how to collect and share images of suspected HABs using inexpensive WiFi microscopes. Using ImageJ opensource image analysis software we generated correlations between image colony abundance and the levels of microcystin (MC) (R squared of 0.48) and chlorophyll A, a general measure of algal density (R squared = 0.64). Additionally, our team performed qPCR for MC synthase genes on DNA extracted from a subset of HABs and background non-bloom samples. Using both benchtop and handheld devices for qPCR we found excellent sensitivity of the method for screening for high toxin HABs (87.5-96%). Other key findings are that: multiple strains of Microcystis (MC-producing genus) are present in the Finger Lakes and that one, specific to Canandaigua Lake, has a very high MC/chloral ratio; blooms arose quickly from non-bloom samples and non-bloom samples immediately preceding the event had detectable levels of the MC toxin gene. The work strengthened relationships among the community partners and trained community members on tools for HABs monitoring. In addition to one publication submitted to Water Research journal, and two others in preparation our team also disseminated the results via webinars, a newsletter in the Cayuga Lake Watershed Network newsletter, and the creation of a publicly available GIS based map that shows microscope images associated with the different locations sampled.
Barriers to oyster recovery in Hudson River Estuary: Billions of larvae with no place to go
Hare, Matthew (New York State Water Resources Institute, 2022)
Interest in eastern oyster restoration in the Hudson/Raritan estuary (HRE) has been building in conjunction with water quality improvements near New York City. Restoration is motivated by the ecosystem services typically provided by a large oyster population. In this project we continued systematic monitoring of newly settled oyster spat south of the only known wild population in the Hudson River. Oyster settlement was higher in 2020 than seen in either of the two preceding years of comparable monitoring. Similar to previous years, settling oyster abundance decreased to the south and was much reduced below Yonkers. We initiated a collaboration with New York City BioBoat educators that allowed settlement monitoring logistics from a small boat, achieving a research goal of collecting settlement data at finer spatial resolution. Unfortunately, the mutual goal of involving high school students was not achievable during the 2020 COVID-19 restricted field season.
WRI Annual Project Report, 2020: Underwater Soundscapes as Sentinels of Ecosystem Health and as Tools for Biodiversity Education in the Hudson River Estuary
Flecker, Alex; Rice, Aaron; Niemistö, Maija; Baker, Patrick (New York State Water Resources Institute, 2021)
Here we provide a concise report of our achievements for our WRI-funded efforts in 2020. Unfortunately, the timing of the COVID pandemic lockdown, soon after receiving funding, greatly constrained our initial proposal plans and delayed our ability to start working on the project. Nevertheless, with the immense help of our Hudson-based collaborators, we were able to deploy underwater recorders and WRI funding has allowed us to get our ecoacoustics project off the ground.
Eliminating the “barrier” to estuary education: Connecting students to their estuary by studying the effect of stream barrier and water quality on American eel populations
Donohue, Kerryanne; Wilson, Jessica M.; Brown, Jeanette (New York State Water Resources Institute, 2021)
The decision to install or remove a stream barrier can have many consequences. Water quality, habitat conductivity, and flood control issues can be degraded or improved by the presence or absence of stream barriers. The objective of this work was to bring students into this decision-making process by showing them how to measure water quality parameters before/after a stream barrier using wireless hand-held probes and to compare that field data to portions of streams with no barriers. Minisceongo Creek (West Haverstraw) and Furnace Brook (Croton-on-Hudson) were the target tributaries, located directly across from each other on the West and East Banks of the Hudson River. Furnace Brook has several stream barriers just upstream of a fyke net for determining American eel counts. Local middle school students and teachers (155) were trained in how to use water quality probes and then they participated in a virtual field trip and lessons learned workshop in June 2020. Six water quality datasets measuring water temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, depth, barometric pressure and nitrate were collected in 2020: Spring data sets (2 tributaries, above/below stream barriers) and Fall 2020 (above/below 2 barriers in Furnace Brook only, nitrate probe, no eel data). Preliminary analysis of the 2020 data has shown that nitrate (mV) levels are lower on the downstream side of the stream barriers, and dissolved oxygen (mg/L) levels are higher below the stream barriers. Additional analyses of these datasets are ongoing, along with correlating eel data with water quality from previous years.
Water quality and algal community dynamics in the Finger Lakes
Cleckner, Lisa; Razavi, Roxanne; Halfman, John (New York State Water Resources Institute, 2016)
Nutrient loading has resulted in the proliferation of harmful algal blooms (HABs) in freshwaters worldwide. Most HABs are composed of cyanobacteria, also known as blue‐green algae, which can harm human and animal health when they produce cyanotoxins. Ubiquitous HABs represent a serious problem across waterbodies in New York State and the Finger Lakes. Studies of algal community dynamics can help illuminate factors that lead to increases in HABs. Advanced sensor technology allows for in situ measurements of chlorophyll differentiated by algal class. In this study, a FluoroProbe spectrofluorometer (bbe moldaenke, GmbH) was used to assess four major phytoplankton groups in the pelagic and nearshore of two Finger Lakes (i.e., Honeoye and Canandaigua Lakes). The objective of this work was to determine whether pelagic sampling reflects nearshore algal communities, and how this varies by lake trophic status. Seasonal changes in algal communities were also assessed, and water quality parameters that best explain phytoplankton succession and specifically cyanobacteria are evaluated.
Prediction of Sediment Remobilized by Removal of the Bingham Mills Dam in the Hudson River Watershed
Wu, Weiming; Knack, Ian; Perera, Chamil (New York State Water Resources Institute, 2016)
The Bingham Mills Dam is an abandoned, old dam located on the Roeliff Jansen Kill, a tributary of the Lower Hudson River in New York. It used to provide hydropower for the mills nearby, and now does not have any use. The Bingham Mills Dam and the waterfalls are barriers for fish migrating upstream. A management option is to remove the dam for safety concern. The research team surveyed the channel bathymetry upstream and downstream of the dam and collected samples to assess the sediment size compositions and the chemicals absorbed on the sediments. The measured data show that the sediments in the reservoir are mostly sand and gravel, and have very little amounts of mercury, PCBs and pesticides. The erodible sediments in the reservoir are less than 1.4 m thick, and about 9,126 m3 in volume. Then, a depth-averaged 2D numerical model called CMS was used to simulate the sediment erosion after the dam removal. The numerical simulation shows that most of the sediments in the reservoir can be washed downstream within a large flood event. The total eroded sediment is about 7,370 m3. The collected data and derived results can be used for future studies on the feasibility of removing the Bingham Mills Dam and the potential impacts on the downstream stream water quality and habitats.
Empirical Validation of the Use of Genetic Tags to Determine the Population and DPS Origin of Atlantic Sturgeon that Were Acoustically Tagged off the Delaware Coast and in Long Island Sound
Wirgin, Isaac (New York State Water Resources Institute, 2016)
At one time, adult Atlantic sturgeon supported a signature fishery in the Hudson River and many other major rivers coastwide. Overharvest and several other anthropogenic stressors led to a reduction of abundance of almost all populations, state and federal harvest moratoriums, and subsequent listing of the species as five Distinct Population Segments under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. Although Atlantic sturgeon exhibit strong spawning fidelity to their natal rivers, subadults and adults are highly migratory for prolonged periods in coastal waters and are seasonally found in non-natal estuaries. DNA approaches are the “gold standard” to distinguish populations and to identify the river-of-origin of individuals outside of their natal estuaries. Similarly, use of acoustic telemetry has been adopted by many sturgeon researchers to better understand their complex and prolonged migratory behavior within and outside of their natal estuaries. In this study, we married the two approaches to evaluate the veracity of the DNA approaches in determining the river-of-origin of sturgeon by comparing genetic assignments to individual spawning rivers and DPS with the actual detection of acoustically tagged fish in the Hudson River and Delaware River at spawning time. Surprisingly, we found that only 84% of river-of-origin genetic assignments corresponded with the spawning river in which the fish were detected by the acoustic arrays.

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