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

1. Estuary and Coastal Conditions Reporting Got Data? - Cool Tools for Effective Data Presentation New England Regional Volunteer Monitoring Workshop Friday, November 16th, 2007 EPA New England Regional Laboratory North Chelmsford, MA Hal Walker walker.henry@epa.gov U.S. EPA - ORD. NHEERL Atlantic Ecology Division Narragansett, Rhode Island

2. Got Data? - Cool Tools for Effective Data PresentationSuggested components of presentation • Quick intro to what your program is: National Coastal Assessment:http://www.epa.gov/emap/nca/ • Rationale for developing an index (why created) National consistency in reporting on estuarine condition • 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 Reportshttp://www.epa.gov/owow/oceans/nccr/ • How successful has it been Outstanding Achievement Award Renewable Natural Resources Fund 6. Lessons learned Consistency in goals, rational, approach, funding. Partnership with States and Tribes key to success. Tech transfer of methods / reproducibility 2

3. Got Data? - Cool Tools for Effective Data Presentation:Defining the Goal, Audience, Computational & Reporting Methods Talk Outline: • 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) 3

4. Defining the Goal, Audience, Computational & Reporting Methods • 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 GroopmanNPR audio interviewhttp://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=8892053 Have Data: How do we present the data to decision makers ? 4

5. Heatmap. Discrimination between two forms of Leukemia: ALL, and AML GENES based on gene expression monitoring by DNA Microarrays. Automatically discovered the AML / ALL distinctions. AML SAMPLES ALL Predicted vs Observed From Goulb et at (1999) This analysis is reproducible using open source R software http://www.bioconductor.org/docs/papers/2003/Compendium/Golub.pdf

6. “Smart Monitoring: The River is the Report Card for the Watershed” from Warren Kimball, MA DEP Warren.Kimball@state.ma.us Goal for report components: (1) Report, (2) Data, (3) Computational Script 6

7. Got Data? - Cool Tools for Effective Data Presentation: Defining the Goal, Audience, Computational & Reporting Methods • 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) 7

8. National Coastal Assessment (NCA) is working in partnership with States Regions and Tribes to: • 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. 8

9. Estuarine Assessment & Reporting involves partnerships:EPA ORD NHEERL & OW, NOAA & NMFS, USGS, Fish and Wildlife Service, Coastal States, and Universities Improvement in consistency in assessments required by the Clean Water Act (CWA) Reporting on conditions in Nation’s estuaries and Large Marine Ecosystems http://www.epa.gov/emap/nca/ 9

10. National Coastal Condition Reports (NCCRs) are based on probability survey and advisory data from regulatory agencies Offshore surveys Large Marine Ecosystems (LMEs) NCA receives EPA ORD “Team Work Award”, 2007 http://www.epa.gov/owow/oceans/nccr/ 10

11. sampling designs by water body States share sampling regional data sharing frequent meetings Suffolk County DHS PA Chesapeake Bay Program NCA Partners in Northeast AED receives ORD Statesmanship Award, 2002 11

12. National Coastal Assessment Approach: • Utilize consistently measured indicators to assess and help explain estuarine condition • Utilize Probability surveys • Extrapolates to all of estuarine waters • Addresses 305(b) requirements & GPRA • 100% assessed waters • Incorporate existing monitoring programs, & develop hybrid monitoring designs 12

13. National Coastal Assessment • 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” 13

14. National Estuary Program Coastal Condition Report Analysis and Reporting National Coastal Condition Reports http://www.epa.gov/owow/oceans/nccr/ In Nov 2007 U.S. EPA National Coastal Assessment to receive “Outstanding Achievement Award” Renewable Natural Resources Fund 14

15. Consistently Measured Indicators Coastal 2000 / NCA Core Indicators: Water Quality - dissolved oxygen - salinity - temperature - pH - depth - light attenuation - secchi depth - dissolved nutrients - chlorophyll a - total suspended solids (TSS) • Biota • Fish/Shellfish • community structure • (fish) • - tissue contaminants (organics & metals) • - external pathology (fish) • Benthos • - community structure • Not Measured by NCA • SAV • SAV condition • Macro algal biomass • Harmful algal blooms • Biomass of sensitive and tolerant taxa Habitat - SAV (presence/absence) west coast & gulf coast - basic habitat type (e.g., open water, tidal flat) - marine debris (presence/absence) Sediment Quality - sediment contaminants . (organics & metals) - sediment TOC - sediment toxicity (amphipod) - percent silt/clay 15

16. National Coastal Assessment in Northeast(random locations in 2000 survey) 16

17. National Coastal Assessment: Regional Characterization Probabilistic sampling design / Summer 2000. Narragansett Bay Findings Exceeded chronic criterion for DO in stratified water south of Cape Cod Quartiles Water Quality Example NO2- + NO3- Chlorophyll-a Secchi depth New England SPARROW Model Output TN Loading(estimated annual means)  Sigma-T Dissolved Oxygen 17

18. Estuarine water quality indicators 18

19. National Coastal Condition Report II( lots of indicators rolled up into 5 indices, with additional assessment info ) Overall Regional Coastal Conditions 5 Indices Indicators used in 5 indices, rolled up to National statement of condition 19

20. National Coastal Assessment Northeast (2000) (a look at estuarine water quality indicators) 20

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25. Sediment Quality Indicators 1) Sediment toxicity 2) Sediment Contaminants 3) Total Organic Carbon 25

26. 1) Sediment Condition Index 3 indicators rolled into 1 sediment condition index 2) 3) 26

27. 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.htm 27

28. Move cursor over pie diagram and click http://www.state.nj.us/dep/wms//bmw/NCA/NCASediment.html 28

29. Select Sed Quality component and click, e.g. Sed contaminants. http://www.state.nj.us/dep/wms//bmw/NCA/SedQualDelaware.htm 29

30. Select site of interest, and click http://www.state.nj.us/dep/wms//bmw/NCA/SedChemDelaware.htm 30

31. http://71.59.88.199/SondePages/BuildSedChemTable.php?Loc=DE01-0074http://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) 31

32. Got Data? - Cool Tools for Effective Data Presentation: Defining the Goal, Audience, Computational & Reporting Methods • 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) 32

33. Northeast Partners can reproduce and refine analyses • Statistical Analysis Tools • Excel & R-Excel • Conditional Probability Analysis • GIS Visualization Tools • ArcMap projects • ArcGIS server in the works Partners can re-compute (point and click) summary statistics and visualize regional and local multivariate data structures Password protected website for NCA partners http://www.epa.gov/emap/nca/html/regions/er/index.html Public Access: http://www.epa.gov/emap/nca/html/regions/northeast.html 33

34. Making data analysis & visualization reproducible Mercury “hot spot” Mercury in Rhode Island sediments 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 Biotic conditions in upper Bay Narragansett Bay 34

35. Associating biotic conditions with stressors Acute criteria Chronic criteria Probability of Impairment using CBP B-IBI Conditional probability calculated using an Excel plug in 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) 35

36. EPA Portal Allows for remote desktop sharing http:\\portal.epa.gov Partners can reproduce and refine analyses • Statistical Analysis Tools • Excel • Conditional Probability Analysis • GIS Visualization Tools • ArcMap projects • ArcGIS server in the works (for download Google “CProb EPA”) Partners can re-compute (point and click) summary statistics and visualize regional and local multivariate data structures 36

37. Probability of Impairment using CBP B-IBI National Condition Acute criteria Chronic criteria Accountability Standards Site specific diagnostics A conceptual framework, and approach for addressing Agency needs Electronic Reports Reproducible Research An important “turn of the century” baseline 37