U.S. EPA - ORD.NHEERL Atlantic Ecology DivisionNarragansett, Rhode Island

Hal Walker walker.henry@epa.gov

Estuary and Coastal Conditions Reporting

Got Data? - Cool Tools for Effective Data Presentation

New England Regional Volunteer Monitoring WorkshopFriday, November 16th, 2007

EPA New England Regional Laboratory

North Chelmsford, MA

Got Data? - Cool Tools for Effective Data PresentationSuggested components of presentation

1. Quick intro to what your program is:

National Coastal Assessment: http://www.epa.gov/emap/nca/

2. Rationale for developing an index (why created)

National consistency in reporting on estuarine condition

3. Mechanics of the index (not too much detail – but hopefully with information on how to get more information)

NCCR2 http://www.epa.gov/owow/oceans/nccr/2005/Chapt1_Intro.pdf

4. Examples of how index has been used or will be used

National Coastal Condition Reports http://www.epa.gov/owow/oceans/nccr/

5. How successful has it been

Outstanding Achievement Award Renewable Natural Resources Fund

6. Lessons learnedConsistency in goals, rational, approach, funding. Partnership with States and Tribes key to success. Tech transfer of methods / reproducibility

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• Report Cards (Medical example and Watershed Example)

• National Coastal Assessment Overview (indicators and indices) • Example Regional Scale Results (water quality indicators)• Example State Level reporting (sediment quality index)

• “Cool tools” Philosophy (Reproducible Calculations / Flexibility)• Computational Approaches (ArcMap, Excel, R-Excel, R script)

Excel example, R-Excel example

• Next steps (adapt computation tools for lakes assessments)

Got Data? - Cool Tools for Effective Data Presentation: Defining the Goal, Audience, Computational & Reporting Methods

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Talk Outline:

• My son was diagnosed with leukemia at age 6 What are the indicators ? Do we need additional information on cell type? What are the treatment options ?

• Your watershed has problems. What are the indicators and indices of condition ? Do we need more monitoring information ?

How do we inform the decision making process ?

How doctors think. Dr. Jerome Groopman NPR audio interview http://

www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=8892053

Defining the Goal, Audience, Computational & Reporting Methods

Have Data: How do we present the data to decision makers ?

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SAMPLES

GENESDiscrimination between two forms of Leukemia: ALL, and AML

From Goulb et at (1999)

Heatmap.

based on gene expression monitoring by DNAMicroarrays. Automatically discovered the AML / ALL distinctions.

ALL

AML

Predicted vs Observed

This analysis is reproducible using open source R software http://www.bioconductor.org/docs/papers/2003/Compendium/Golub.pdf

Goal for report components: (1) Report, (2) Data, (3) Computational Script

“Smart Monitoring: The River is the Report Card for the Watershed” from Warren Kimball, MA DEP

Warren.Kimball@state.ma.us

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• Report Cards (Medical example and Watershed Example)

• National Coastal Assessment Overview (indicators and indices) • Example Regional Scale Results (water quality indicators)• Example State Level reporting (sediment quality index)

• “Cool tools” Philosophy (Reproducible Calculations / Flexibility)

• Computational Approaches (ArcMap, Excel, R-Excel, R script)

Excel example, R-Excel example• Next steps (Adapt computation tools for lakes assessments)

Got Data? - Cool Tools for Effective Data Presentation: Defining the Goal, Audience, Computational & Reporting Methods

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Assess the ecological condition of estuarine resources. Based on unbiased data of know quality

Determine reference conditions for studies on ecological responses / stressors.

Build infrastructure in states and EPA Regions.

National Coastal Assessment (NCA) is working in National Coastal Assessment (NCA) is working in partnership with States Regions and Tribes to:partnership with States Regions and Tribes to:

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Estuarine Assessment & Reporting involves partnerships: EPA ORD NHEERL & OW, NOAA & NMFS, USGS, Fish and Wildlife Service, Coastal States, and Universities

http://www.epa.gov/emap/nca/

Reporting on conditions in Nation’s estuaries and Large Marine Ecosystems

Improvement in consistency in assessments required by the Clean Water Act (CWA)

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National Coastal Condition Reports (NCCRs) are based on probability survey and advisory data from regulatory agencies

Large Marine Ecosystems (LMEs)

NCA receives EPA ORD “Team Work Award”, 2007

Offshore surveys

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http://www.epa.gov/owow/oceans/nccr/

NCA Partners in Northeast

Chesapeake BayProgram

Suffolk CountyDHS

AED receives ORD Statesmanship Award, 2002

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sampling designs by water body

States share sampling

regional data sharing

frequent meetings

Approach:

Utilize consistently measured indicators to assess and help explain estuarine condition

Utilize Probability surveysExtrapolates to all of estuarine watersAddresses 305(b) requirements & GPRA100% assessed waters

Incorporate existing monitoring programs, & develop hybrid monitoring designs

National Coastal AssessmentNational Coastal Assessment

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• Surveys in the Northeast estuaries from 2000 thru 2006

• Production of a series of National reports

• Technology transfer from EPA ORD to EPA Regions, Office of Water, States and Tribes

• Data sharing within the Northeast Region

• Use of environmental indicators, indices, and tech transfer of “computational tools”

National Coastal AssessmentNational Coastal Assessment

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Analysis and Reporting

National Coastal Condition Reports

National Estuary Program Coastal Condition Report

In Nov 2007 U.S. EPA National Coastal Assessment to receive “Outstanding Achievement Award” Renewable Natural Resources Fund

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http://www.epa.gov/owow/oceans/nccr/

Water Quality

- dissolved oxygen- salinity- temperature- pH- depth- light attenuation- secchi depth- dissolved nutrients- chlorophyll a- total suspended solids (TSS)

Sediment Quality- sediment contaminants . (organics & metals)- sediment TOC- sediment toxicity (amphipod)- percent silt/clay

Biota Fish/Shellfish-community structure (fish)- tissue contaminants (organics & metals)- external pathology (fish)

Benthos- community structure

Habitat - SAV (presence/absence)

west coast & gulf coast- basic habitat type

(e.g., open water, tidal flat)- marine debris (presence/absence)

Consistently Measured Indicators Consistently Measured Indicators Coastal 2000 / NCA Core Indicators:Coastal 2000 / NCA Core Indicators:

Not Measured by NCA

- SAV SAV condition

-Macro algal biomass-Harmful algal blooms-Biomass of sensitive and

tolerant taxa

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National Coastal Assessment in Northeast(random locations in 2000 survey)

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Findings Exceeded chronic

criterion for DO in stratified water south of Cape Cod

National Coastal Assessment: Regional Characterization Probabilistic sampling design / Summer 2000.

NO2- + NO3

-

Secchi depth Sigma-T

Dissolved Oxygen

Quartiles

Chlorophyll-a

New England SPARROW Model Output

TN Loading (estimated annual means)

Narragansett Bay

Water Quality Example

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Estuarine water quality indicators

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National Coastal Condition Report IINational Coastal Condition Report II( lots of indicators rolled up into 5 indices, with additional assessment info )( lots of indicators rolled up into 5 indices, with additional assessment info )

Indicators used in 5 indices, rolled up to National statement of condition

5 Indices

Overall Regional Coastal Conditions

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National Coastal Assessment Northeast (2000) (a look at estuarine water quality indicators)

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21

22

23

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1) Sediment toxicity

2) Sediment Contaminants

3) Total Organic Carbon

Sediment Quality Indicators

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Sediment Condition Index 3 indicators rolled into 1 sediment condition index

1)

2)

3)

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An example of New Jersey DEP web-based reporting on estuarine Sediment Condition Index and indicators:

http://www.state.nj.us/dep/wms//bmw/NCA/NCAmain.htm27

http://www.state.nj.us/dep/wms//bmw/NCA/NCASediment.html

Move cursor over pie diagram and click

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http://www.state.nj.us/dep/wms//bmw/NCA/SedQualDelaware.htm

Select Sed Quality component and click, e.g. Sed contaminants.

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http://www.state.nj.us/dep/wms//bmw/NCA/SedChemDelaware.htm

Select site of interest, and click

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http://71.59.88.199/SondePages/BuildSedChemTable.php?Loc=DE01-0074

Website uses Open Source code (PHP) scripting language for web development http://www.php.net/ to query a MySQL database (easy to share with collaborators)

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• Report Cards (Medical example and Watershed Example)

• National Coastal Assessment Overview (indicators and indices) • Example Regional Scale Results (water quality indicators)• Example State Level reporting (sediment quality index)

• “Cool tools” Philosophy (Reproducible Calculations / Flexibility)• Computational Approaches (ArcMap, Excel, R-Excel, R script)

Excel example. Conditional Probability (R-Excel example).

• Next steps (Adapt computation tools for lakes assessments)

Got Data? - Cool Tools for Effective Data Presentation: Defining the Goal, Audience, Computational & Reporting Methods

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Statistical Analysis Tools

• Excel & R-Excel• Conditional Probability Analysis

GIS Visualization Tools• ArcMap projects• ArcGIS server in the works

Northeast Partners can reproduce and refine analyses

Partners can re-compute (point and click) summary statistics and visualize regional and local multivariate data structures

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http://www.epa.gov/emap/nca/html/regions/er/index.html Public Access: http://www.epa.gov/emap/nca/html/regions/northeast.html

Password protected website for NCA partners

Making data analysis & visualization reproducible

Computational tools: Excel: regional & State maps,

% area statistics, state comparisons

ArcMap projects for spatial visualization

• Narragansett Bay biota (map below)

Diagnostics• e.g. other contaminants at Hg hot spot Ratios of site specific chemical

concentrations to regional medians

Mercury in Rhode Island sediments

Biotic conditions in upper Bay

Narragansett Bay

Mercury “hot spot”

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Pro

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CB

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Chronic criteria

Conditional probability calculated using an Excel plug in

Associating biotic conditions with stressors

What “reference levels” are protective?

Dissolved oxygen example

Distribution of the Chesapeake Bay Program’s Benthic Index of Biotic Integrity (CBP B-IBI) Scores as a Function of Bottom Dissolved Oxygen Concentrations (mg/L)

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Statistical Analysis Tools

• Excel • Conditional Probability Analysis

GIS Visualization Tools• ArcMap projects• ArcGIS server in the works

Partners can reproduce and refine analyses

Partners can re-compute (point and click) summary statistics and visualize regional and local multivariate data structures

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EPA Portal

Allows for remote desktop sharing http:\\portal.epa.gov

(for download Google “CProb EPA”)

An important “turn of the century” baseline

A conceptual framework, and approach for addressing Agency needs

National Condition

Accountability

Acute criteriaChronic criteria

Pro

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Standards

Site specific diagnostics

Ele

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Rep

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Reproducible Research