Use of GIS and remotely sensed data for a priori identification of reference areas for Great Lakes coastal ecosystems
- 10 December 2005
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Taylor & Francis Ltd in International Journal of Remote Sensing
- Vol. 26 (23), 5325-5342
- https://doi.org/10.1080/01431160500219364
Abstract
Identification of reference conditions for ecological assessments of coastal ecosystems poses a challenging problem in highly modified landscapes. A method is described for characterizing disturbance in coastal ecosystems using remotely sensed land classification and other publicly available GIS data. Within ecoregions bordering the US Great Lakes coast, aquatic habitats bordering the shoreline were classified into five ecological types: high‐energy shoreline, embayments, open‐coast, river‐influenced and protected wetlands. Degree of anthropogenic disturbance in contributing areas to these ecosystems was assessed using a watershed approach for wetland types or a moving window approach for high‐energy shorelines. Anthropogenic stress variables included proportions of agricultural or residential land use, information on population and road density, and distance from the nearest point source. Polygons (wetlands) or pixels (high‐energy shoreline) were categorized as ‘reference’ if the magnitude of the most severe stressor, based on its cumulative frequency distribution within that ecoregion, placed it within the lowest 20th percentile. For shorelines, adjacent ‘reference’ pixels were agglomerated into polygons and a final ranking of polygons containing at least 2 km of shoreline was used to identify candidate reference areas. A subset of these sites is currently being sampled for fish, macroinvertebrates and physical habitat attributes. This a priori approach to reference area identification will allow managers to identify biological correlates of reference conditions, providing a benchmark for bioassessment and restoration efforts in coastal regions.Keywords
This publication has 26 references indexed in Scilit:
- The effects of fish on assemblages of amphibians in ponds: a field experimentFreshwater Biology, 1999
- Classification of macroinvertebrate communities across drainage basins in Victoria, Australia: consequences of sampling on a broad spatial scale for predictive modellingFreshwater Biology, 1999
- Landscape-scale influences on stream habitats and biotaCanadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, 1996
- The effect of habitat‐specific sampling on biological assessment of water quality using a predictive modelFreshwater Biology, 1996
- Landscape-scale influences on stream habitats and biotaCanadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, 1996
- Biological guidelines for freshwater sediment based on BEnthic Assessment of SedimenT (the BEAST) using a multivariate approach for predicting biological stateAustralian Journal of Ecology, 1995
- Development and use of a system for predicting the macroinvertebrate fauna in flowing watersAustralian Journal of Ecology, 1995
- The Relationship of Aquatic Ecoregions, River Basins and Physiographic Provinces to the Ichthyogeographic Regions of OregonIchthyology & Herpetology, 1987
- Ecoregions of the Conterminous United StatesAnnals of the American Association of Geographers, 1987
- Regional reference sites: a method for assessing stream potentialsEnvironmental Management, 1986