2015 Association of Mid-Atlantic Aquatic Biologists Workshop Cacapon State Park Berkeley Springs, WV
March 25-26, 2015
2015 Meeting Dates and Letter from the President
The 2015 Annual Meeting and Workshop for the Association of Mid-Atlantic Aquatic Biologists (AMAAB) will be held March 25-26, 2015 at Cacapon State Park near Berkeley Springs, WV. We are planning a full day of presentations on Wednesday. Mini workshops will be held on Thursday morning. The host for this year's workshop is the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC).
The procedures for offering presentations have not changed from previous years and are explained in the Call for Papers tab.
Pre-registration forms will be posted on the Registration/Workshops tab soon. Please select your top 3 workshop choices when registering. Forms can be emailed to Ellen Dickey at amaab2015@state.de.us. Be sure to reference "[your last name] AMAAB 2015" in the subject line. Please include your contact information (name, address, telephone number). Additionally registration forms can be faxed to (302) 739-3491.
The registration fee is $50 which includes an evening social with finger foods on Wednesday, March 25th. Payments are typically made onsite at the meeting and may be made by cash or personal and agency checks made payable to AMAAB. We regret that we will not be able to accept credit cards.
Onsite Registration will take place on: Tuesday, March 24th - 7:00-8:30pm Wednesday, March 25th – beginning at 8:00am
If your e-mail address has changed, please leave one of your business cards at the registration table so we can update our e-mailing list. It is important that we get an updated email address from members because all business will be conducted via email and website postings instead of by traditional paper mailings.
There will be a continental breakfast offered on Wednesday and Thursday morning (coffee, juice, Danish, fruit). For those desiring a full breakfast, the restaurant will open Thursday morning at 7:30 a.m.
Again this year we will be holding a raffle and silent auction. This has been a big success each year. So bring a little extra cash, you may win and it all helps support the meeting!
We are working on putting together photo galleries of past meetings. If you have any digital photos from the 2014 meeting (or any other year) you would like to share, please send them to Katherine Hanna (katherine.hanna@maryland.gov).
Check back periodically for updates. We look forward to seeing you at the workshop. Please e-mail amaab2015@state.de.us or call Ellen at (302) 739-9942 with any questions.
Best regards,
Ellen Dickey 2015 AMAAB President
19:00 - 20:30 PM Early registration: Tuesday March 24, 2015 Make checks payable to "AMAAB"
DAY 1 AGENDA: WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25, 2015 Washington/Fairfax Room
7:30 - 9:00 Registration (Continental Breakfast)
8:30 Welcome, Logistics, AMAAB Business
8:45 Key Note Ron Preston, USEPA - Retired
9:00 Applications of Regional Monitoring Network (RMN) data in the Mid-Atlantic Region Jonathan Witt, USEPA
9:25 Can EPA National Rivers and Streams Assessment Data Be Used With State Data to Report on the Health of Streams in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed? Scott Stranko, Maryland Dept. Nat. Res.
9:50 Seeing beyond the Noise: 40-Year Trends in Water Quality at West Virginia’s Ambient Monitoring Stations Claire Buchanan, Interstate Comm. Potomac River Basin
10:15 – 10:45 Break 30 minutes
10:45 Groundwater Affects Headwater Stream Response to Climate Warming Nathaniel Hitt, USGS-Leetown Science Center
11:10 Restoration of Nontidal Wetlands, Stream Channels and Floodplains in Delaware Tom Barthelmeh, Delaware Dept. Nat. Res. Env. Ctrl.
11:35 Macroinvertebrate Export From Headwater Tributaries of a Central Appalachian Stream Greg Pond, USEPA
13:30 AMAAB Meeting Survey Summary Ellen Dickey, Delaware DNREC
13:50 Could Thiamine status of PA Smallmouth Bass Affect the population in Susquehanna River Dale Honeyfield, Northern Appalachian Research Lab
14:15 Investigation of Factors Contributing to the Reduction in Abundance of Adult Smallmouth Bass at the Middle Susquehanna River and Lower Juniata River Geoffrey Smith, Penn. Fish and Boat Comm.
14:40 Streamflow, Water Quality and Macroinvertebrates; A USGS and Fairfax County (VA) Long-term Partnership Study Shannon Curtis, Fairfax County, VA
15:05 - 15:20 Break 15 minutes
15:20 Piloting Continuous Data Management Systems within the Regional Monitoring Networks Britta Bierwagen, USEPA
15:45 Using the Bootstrap Algorithm to Estimate BIBI Score Variability in Maryland’s High Quality Streams Timothy Fox, Maryland Dept. of Environ.
16:10 Monitoring for Chloride in Freshwater Streams Allison O'Hanlon, Maryland Dept. of Environ.
16:35 The Potential Impact of Unpaved Roads on Waterways in Rural Parts of the Marcellus Shale Gas Play: Coupling Land Use Changes With Continuous In-stream Monitoring Data James Shallenberger, Susq. Riv. Basin Comm.
17:00 FINAL ANNOUNCEMENTS, BUSINESS, RAFFLES, ADJOURNMENT
18:00 DOUG AND DIANE WOOD – NATIVE AMERICAN HISTORICAL DEMONSTRATION
19:00 - 22:00 EVENING Social with finger foods
Factors associated with the distributions and densities of three native and one non-native crayfish in Maryland streams. Jay Kilian, jay.kilian@maryland.gov
Comparative analysis of traveling kick net and d-frame methodologies Ellyn Campbell, ecampbell@srbc.net
Appropriateness of largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) as a model species for detection of endocrine disruption Winston Liu, Winston.w.liu@gmail.com
Validation of a laparoscopic method for collecting testis from largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) for non-lethal detection of intersex (testicular oocytes) Alexander Macleod, Alexx.macleo@gmail.com
Establishing baseline conditions to assess the effects of unconventional oil & gas development on headwater streams Kelly Maloney, kmaloney@usgs.gov
Didymo in Pine Creek, Pennsylvania: environmental factors controlling distribution and plans for future research Matthew Shank, mshank@srbc.net
Comparison of macroinvertebrate assemblages, from 2011-2013, at remote water quality monitoring network stations throughout the Susquehanna River basin Luanne Steffy and Dawn Hintz, lsteffy@srbc.net
Effects of landuse change at Maryland Biological Stream Survey Sites 2000-2014 Rebecca Bourquin, Rebecca.bourquin@maryland.gov
Susquehanna River basin sediment and passive sampler data Amy Williams, amywilli@pa.gov
Comparison of macroinvertebrate communities, habitat and water quality in pastured and un-pastured streams for Turtle Creek stream assessments (Union County, Pennsylvania) prior to stabilization and habitat improvements in 2014. Dave Rebuck, drebuck@pa.gov
Re-Introduction and Current Distribution of American Eel (Anguilla rostrata) in the Susquehanna River Basin Aaron Henning, ahenning@srbc.net
Spatial Habitat Modelling for Rivers using GIS Kim Bjorgo-Thorne, bjorgo@wvwc.edu
1. Conservation, Ecology and Identification of Mid-Atlantic Crayfishes Facilitator: Zachary Loughman, Ph.D., West Liberty University (zloughman@westliberty.edu) There are more than 350 species of crayfish in North America with around ½ currently threatened with population decline or extinction. This workshop will review crayfish biology, distribution, and ecology specific to the Mid-Atlantic region. Focus will be placed on the major anatomical characteristics used to differentiate crayfish species and key concepts associated with their taxonomy. Special attention will be made to learn how to differentiate between non-native and native species and discuss the history and potential future for crayfishes in the Mid-Atlantic region. Identification keys will be provided and attendees will have the opportunity to key out live and preserved specimens of regional crayfish species. (Class Limit: 20)
2. The Identification of Central Appalachian Darters Facilitator: Dan Cincotta, WV DEP (Daniel.A.Cincotta@wv.gov) Participants will receive hands-on training on fixing, preserving, and identifying the Mid- Atlantic darter fauna found on both sides of the Appalachian Divide. Students should bring a dissecting scope, light source (preferably fiber optic lighting), regional keys, nitrile gloves, and non-serrated forceps to the training session. Also, it is recommended that participants bring problematic/unknown specimens to the workshop so that the instructors may confirm their identification. (Class Limit: 25)
3. Headwater Stream Evaluation Facilitator: Larry Eaton, NC, DENR (larry.eaton@ncdenr.gov) Where does a stream start? When does a water feature fall into State jurisdiction? The exact answer lies in each State’s definition of a stream, but one method that quantifies stream permanence is the NC Stream Determination Method. Over 20 minutes, an observer rates a stream segment on 35 factors to produce a numeric score. In North Carolina, 19 points indicates an intermittent stream and results in the State claiming jurisdiction. This seminar will give an overview of how to use the NC Stream Determination form and how other States have modified it for their own uses. (Class Limit: 25)
4. Fish Necropsy Techniques Facilitator: Vicki Blazer, USGS (vblazer@usgs.gov) The workshop will be 3 hours and will include hands-on demonstration. Attendees do not need to bring supplies. We will cover recognition of normal and abnormal tissues in fish, obtaining blood samples, sterile technique and culturing tissues for bacteriology and viral pathogens, proper techniques for acquiring tissues for histopathology and molecular analyses, and documenting visual observations made during the necropsy. The lecture portion will discuss what can and cannot be determined from a necropsy, lesion descriptions and causes of some of the more commonly observed lesions. We will also discuss what can be determined from properly preserved tissues and the consequences of improper necropsy techniques. (Class Limit: 20)
5. Linked Micromaps: Statistical Summaries of Aquatic Monitoring Data in a Spatial Context Facilitator: Michael McManus, USEPA ORD/NCEA (mcmanus.michael@epa.gov) (Class Limit: 20) Communicating summaries of spatial data to decision makers and the public is challenging. Linked micromaps provide a way to simultaneously present geographic context and statistical summaries of data. Monitoring data collected over areal units, such as watersheds or ecoregions, can be displayed as micromaps in documents, such as integrated water quality monitoring and assessment reports. Some advantages of linked micromaps over conventionally used pin or choropleth maps include: displaying measures of variation, such as confidence limits or interquartile ranges, facilitating exploratory spatial data analysis, such as identifying local or global outliers, and comparing multiple variables. Using a combination of lectures, demonstrations, and exercises, this workshop focuses on producing linked micromaps to summarize monitoring data over relevant areal units. I outline four steps to make a linked micromap using the R package micromap. The hands-on approach offers participants experience in producing linked micromaps, emphasizing how the spatial and statistical data need to be structured to produce these graphics. Participants need to bring a laptop already loaded with RStudio and these R packages: micromap, ggplot2, maptools, sp, rgeos, RColorBrewer, and rgdal so they can edit, write, and run example code to make linked micromaps. The views in this abstract are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views or policies of the U.S. EPA.
6. Continuous Monitoring for Climate Change Facilitator: Kelly Krock, EPA Region III (Krock.Kelly@epa.gov) Climate change is altering temperatures and flows in stream ecosystems, which can affect the distribution, diversity, and abundance of biotic communities that are used as a basis for resource management. The lack of continuous temperature and flow data for minimally disturbed, unregulated freshwater wadeable streams is an impediment to analyses of long- term trends in biological, thermal, and hydrologic data. USEPA has been collaborating with east coast states to develop regional monitoring networks that can detect small, progressive changes in stream communities. To help facilitate more uniform and effective collection of continuous temperature and water depth data, the USEPA and collaborators have developed a guidance document for sampling ungaged sites in wadeable streams (Available at: http://cfpub.epa.gov/ncea/global/recordisplay.cfm?deid=280013). This document addresses equipment needs, installation, maintenance, stream discharge measurements, data retrieval, and data processing. The workshop will use the EPA document as a basis for describing temperature and hydrology monitoring protocols.