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11 results on '"Breneman, Dan"'

6. Assessing estuary aquatic habitat and biological community health to select areas for protection or restoration.

Author

Hayhurst, Brett, Breneman, Dan, Buscaglia, Kristen, and Keil, Karen

Subjects
AQUATIC habitats
Abstract

The St. Louis River Estuary including Duluth-Superior Harbor is the largest estuary in the Great Lakes as well as an Area of Concern. Several beneficial use impairments are legacies of industrial activities and have been the focus of sediment remediation and habitat restoration for many sites throughout the estuary. Natural resource management strategies in the St. Louis River estuary are currently transitioning from federal Area of Concern program priorities to longer-term monitoring and maintenance responsibilities led by the state. Habitat conditions are being documented estuary-wide in order to identify areas of habitat warranting further protection or restoration. A suite of physical, chemical, and biological data sets were used in an analysis effort that describes a gradient of environmental condition across eight longitudinally-defined geomorphic zones within the estuary. Statistical and spatial analysis techniques were used to create rankings based on individual measures of environmental health compared to an established least-impaired, reference condition. Healthy vs. poor habitat can be identified by combining associated metrics and visualizing in GIS. This conceptual tool can help advance planning within an estuary to inform managers of locations warranting protection, or further restoration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Published
2023

11. Environemtnal influences on benthic community structure in a Great Lakes embayment

Author

Richards, Carl, Breneman, Dan, and Lozano, Stephen

Abstract

Biological and chemical measurements of sediment are useful parameters when establishing long-term assessment and monitoring tools for designated areas of concern (AOCs) in the Great Lakes. An intensified Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (EMAP) sampling grid in the St. Louis River estuary of western Lake Superior was used to assess the relationship between surfi-cial sediment characteristics andbenthic community structure. Ninety sites within two habitat classes(< 5.5 m and > 5.5 m depth) were randomly sampled. Sediment for chemical analysis was collected with a cylindrical drop core while benthic macroinvertebrate abundance and composition were determined from petite Ponar grab samples. Taxa richness was variable (1 to 25 taxa) among sites in the St. Louis River AOC. Oligochaeta were the most abundant taxa while Chironomidae larvae provided a majority of the taxa richness with 43 genera. Results from multivariate redundancy analysis (RDA) on 13 environmental parameters revealed that the majority of variation in benthic community structure was attributed to water depth and site distance from the headwaters. Although physical habitat alterations occur over large spatial scales and are more subtle than those conditions associated with chemically impacted sites, only a small portion of the variability in benthic community structure was explained by sediment chemistry variables. Variability in benthic community structure during this survey was best explained by physical habitat features and must first be quantified prior to understanding benthic response to contaminated sediments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Published
2000

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