The second component of the Ecosystem Monitoring Project is habitat monitoring, which involves field surveys in tidally-influenced wetlands and the development of Columbia River Estuary Ecosystem Classification System. On-the-ground field sampling data are being used to assess the status and trends of aquatic habitats and the development of the classification system will enable systematic monitoring of ecosystem attributes across multiple scales.
In December 2004, the Independent Scientific Review Panel approved the Estuary Partnership’s Columbia River Estuary Habitat Monitoring Plan. The Estuary Partnership worked with staff from different agencies and universities to create the plan, which is informing site selection for habitat monitoring efforts and the development of the Columbia River Estuary Ecosystem Classification System.
Habitat Status Monitoring
Lower Columbia River and Estuary Ecosystem Classification System
The Columbia River estuary serves as a migration corridor, a physiological transition zone, a rearing area, and a refuge from predators for 13 salmon and steelhead species in the Columbia River Basin listed under the Endangered Species Act. Until recently, however, the estuary had received minimal attention in the extensive basin-wide effort to recover these listed salmonid populations and to mitigate for the effects of the federal hydropower system.
The goal of the Estuary Partnership’s habitat status monitoring program is to provide long term data to assess the status and trends of aquatic habitats, including those used by endangered salmon populations, and to apply these data, as appropriate, for estuary habitat restoration. The Estuary Partnership’s Science Work Group, comprised of members from natural resource agencies working in the lower Columbia River estuary, reviews and provides guidance on the direction and focus of the habitat monitoring program.
Key objectives of the 2005 field season were to evaluate sampling methods in tidally influenced wetlands in the Columbia River estuary and assess variability in these habitat types. The Estuary Partnership worked with Battelle Marine Sciences Laboratory/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to conduct field sampling in two reaches: Reach D, which spans from the Longview Bridge to Kalama, and Reach F, which encompasses Sauvie Island, Scappoose Bay, the Multnomah Channel and Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge. Data were collected on vegetative cover, including non-native species identification estimates, elevation, and water quality.
The results of the 2005 sampling are summarized in the Columbia River Estuary Habitat Monitoring Field Study and Remote Sensing Analysis 2005 .
Additional field sampling occurred in summer 2006 in Reach G. A total of six sites were sampled during summer 2006 including four in Reach G and two in Reach F that were sampled previously in summer 2005 to assess inter-annual variability of vegetation species composition at these wetlands. The results are summarized in the Ecosystem Monitoring Project Year 3 Annual Report
Columbia River Estuary Ecosystem Classification System
The complex and dynamic nature of the lower Columbia River and estuary presents a challenge when attempting to characterize its structure and function at a manageable scale. The vast size coupled with complex riverine and tidal interactions and ecological responses present substantial difficulties, as well as opportunities for improved scientific understanding.
The Estuary Partnership is working with the University of Washington (UW) and U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to develop a hierarchical landscape classification system for the estuary. UW and USGS are also compiling and collecting information that will help describe the aquatic habitats and geomorphology of the Columbia River estuary.The primary purpose of this classification system is to enable systematic monitoring of diverse, scale-dependent and scale-independent ecosystem attributes responding to multi-scale processes. The classification system assimilates a variety of spatial datasets including hydrologic, geomorphic, bathymetric, land cover and other comprehensive data in a geographical information system (GIS) to delineate the hierarchical classification structure. For instance, at one level the estuary is divided into eight ecologically significant reaches and nested within each of those eight reaches, the classification aggregates cover classes according to the hydrogeomorphic processes that structure the landscape. The classification system will be completed in August 2007 and will provide a method to identify data gaps, monitor landscape attributes at multiple scales, and assist in the formulation of habitat-based sampling plans. The classification methodology is entirely GIS-based using automated processes with minimal manual classification to generate an objective, repeatable, hydrogeomorphic classification system for the lower Columbia River and estuary.
Below is a draft version of the Lower Columbia River and Estuary Ecosystem Classification System.
