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Integrated Measures of Anthropogenic Stress in the U.S. Great Lakes Basin

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Abstract

Integrated, quantitative expressions of anthropogenic stress over large geographic regions can be valuable tools in environmental research and management. Despite the fundamental appeal of a regional approach, development of regional stress measures remains one of the most important current challenges in environmental science. Using publicly available, pre-existing spatial datasets, we developed a geographic information system database of 86 variables related to five classes of anthropogenic stress in the U.S. Great Lakes basin: agriculture, atmospheric deposition, human population, land cover, and point source pollution. The original variables were quantified by a variety of data types over a broad range of spatial and classification resolutions. We summarized the original data for 762 watershed-based units that comprise the U.S. portion of the basin and then used principal components analysis to develop overall stress measures within each stress category. We developed a cumulative stress index by combining the first principal component from each of the five stress categories. Maps of the stress measures illustrate strong spatial patterns across the basin, with the greatest amount of stress occurring on the western shore of Lake Michigan, southwest Lake Erie, and southeastern Lake Ontario. We found strong relationships between the stress measures and characteristics of bird communities, fish communities, and water chemistry measurements from the coastal region. The stress measures are taken to represent the major threats to coastal ecosystems in the U.S. Great Lakes. Such regional-scale efforts are critical for understanding relationships between human disturbance and ecosystem response, and can be used to guide environmental decision-making at both regional and local scales.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Connie Host, Paul Meysembourg, Jim Sales, and Gerry Sjerven for assistance compiling GIS data. Dennis Albert, Jim Lind, Elizabeth R. Smith, and two anonymous reviewers provided valuable comments on earlier drafts. This research was supported by a grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Science to Achieve Results (STAR) Estuarine and Great Lakes (EaGLe) program through funding to the Great Lakes Environmental Indicators (GLEI) project, U.S. EPA Agreement EPA/R-8286750. This document has not been subjected to the Agency’s required peer and policy review and therefore does not necessarily reflect the views of the Agency and no official endorsement should be inferred. This is contribution number 392 of the Center for Water and the Environment, Natural Resources Research Institute, University of Minnesota Duluth.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Water and the Environment, Natural Resources Research Institute, University of Minnesota Duluth, 5013 Miller Trunk Highway, Duluth, Minnesota, 55811, USA

    Nicholas P. Danz, Gerald J. Niemi, Tom Hollenhorst, Lucinda B. Johnson, JoAnn M. Hanowski, Richard P. Axler, Valerie J. Brady & George E. Host

  2. Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Minnesota Duluth, 10 University Drive, Duluth, Minnesota, 55811, USA

    Ronald R. Regal

  3. Department of Biological Sciences, University of Windsor, 401 Sunset Avenue, Windsor, Ontario, N9B 3P4, Canada

    Jan J. H. Ciborowski

  4. Department of Biology, University of Minnesota Duluth, 10 University Drive, Duluth, Minnesota, 55811, USA

    Thomas Hrabik

  5. Mid-Continent Ecology Division, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 6201 Congdon Boulevard, Duluth, Minnesota, 55804, USA

    John R. Kelly & John A. Morrice

  6. Inland Waters Ecoservices, 29 Powers Dr., Herring Cove, Nova Scotia, B3V 1G6, Canada

    John C. Brazner

  7. Department of Natural and Applied Sciences, University of Wisconsin Green Bay, 2420 Nicolet Drive, Green Bay, Wisconsin, 54311, USA

    Robert W. Howe

  8. Center for Biocomplexity Studies, South Dakota State University, Brookings, South Dakota, USA

    Carol A. Johnston

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  1. Nicholas P. Danz
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  2. Gerald J. Niemi
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  3. Ronald R. Regal
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  6. JoAnn M. Hanowski
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  8. Jan J. H. Ciborowski
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  9. Thomas Hrabik
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  10. Valerie J. Brady
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  11. John R. Kelly
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  13. John C. Brazner
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  14. Robert W. Howe
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  15. Carol A. Johnston
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  16. George E. Host
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Correspondence to Nicholas P. Danz.

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Appendix I Variables used to summarize anthropogenic stresses
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Danz, N.P., Niemi, G.J., Regal, R.R. et al. Integrated Measures of Anthropogenic Stress in the U.S. Great Lakes Basin. Environmental Management 39, 631–647 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-005-0293-0

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