Aquatic and Riparian Effectiveness Monitoring Program

After talking about the problems facing ecological data, I wanted to read a little about the data collecting work my friend did over the summer for Aquatic and Riparian Effectiveness Monitoring Program (AREMP) in Oregon and see how that data fits in with the Long Term Ecological Research program. AREMP surveys 250 watersheds in the northwest and their collection practices (including what photos to take, how to record coordinates and how to use site markers) are described on their site. To collect the data they have to enlist a number of people like my friend to collect watershed samples using GIS. Although 250 is a lot of watersheds, it only represents about 10% of the watersheds in the area that is being sampled.

The goal of AREMP is to use a decision support model to evaluate watersheds for overall watershed condition. A number of attributes are assigned to each watershed and once all the attributes for a watershed are sampled the data is aggregated to determine a watershed score. To aggregate the data and find a score, AREMP uses software called Ecosystem Management Decision Support (EMDS) which creates the model and then assesses the condition of the watersheds based on the data. AREMP says that they would be happy to share their data with anybody who would like to see it.

EMDS is pretty interesting, the EMDS document says, "EMDS does contain tools for conducting “what if” scenarios. For example, one can estimate how watershed condition will improve if 500 pieces of large wood were added to the stream".

I wasn't able to find anything connecting AREMP with LTER but I did discover more problems with ecological data. For instance, the EPA and AREMP both use probability sampling designs but, "indicator and sampling methods differ from those used by the EPA, and these differences hinder collaboration and data comparison" (Hughes, 2008, p. 853).

I would still like to know more about AREMP's data and how their data collection methods compare to other ecological studies.

Hughes, R., Peck, D. (2008). Acquiring data for large aquatic resource surveys: The art of compromise among science, logistics, and reality. Journal of the North American Benthological Society (27)4, 837-859.