OpportunityTitle: 2013 Great Lakes Phragmites Collaborative, Phragmites Symbios Collaborative and Coastal Science Strategy
Description: Great Lakes coasts are where land and watersheds, the lakes, and people all meet. It is here where people directly experience, appreciate, use, and impact the lakes. Management issues are complex, multi-disciplinary, often large scale, and multi-jurisdictional. Bringing science to support the adaptive management cycle for coastal resources is especially complex. In this project we will encourage and demonstrate better linkages between science development and coastal management, at the basin- or ecosystem-scale. This will require joining the complimentary skill sets of the GLSC and the GLC, and we will tackle the following joint Initiatives (see the attached Implementing Agreement for specifics): Initiative 1A. Great Lakes Phragmites Collaborative. Wetland invasion by Phragmites australis (common reed) is a significant threat recognized by the public, NGO&#8217;s, and governmental agencies at all levels. Unsustainable, resource-intensive methods, including herbicides, mechanical removal, and water-level manipulations are used widely across the landscape to limit its impact on existing ecosystems and promote habitat restoration within GLRI projects. Management is conducted by a variety of stakeholders (e.g., professional land managers, road commissions, home owners, lake associations) for a variety of ecological, economic and aesthetic reasons. These efforts are often uncoordinated and conducted without identification of desired outcomes. Some restoration efforts (including those funded by GLRI) contain a monitoring component that seeks to characterize system response after treatment while others have no monitoring component at all (i.e., system response to treatment is not quantified). A communication strategy dedicated to technology transfer, information sharing, and network building will improve collaboration and lead to more coordinated, efficient, and strategic approaches in Phragmites management and restoration. The multiagency partnership (USGS-GLSC, Great Lakes Commission) developed for this project will help the proposed coordination be both regionally applicable and locally significant. This partnership can be a conduit for information at local to international scales. Initiative 1B. Collaborative for Microbial Symbiosis and Phragmites Management (PSC). Opportunities also exist for new strategies for managing Phragmites. Presently, the focus is on control after colonization rather than on the underlying cause of Phragmites&#8217; rapid spread. There is evidence that Phragmites gains a competitive advantage over other native species due in part to its relationship with endophytic fungi. These endophytes may inhabit roots, stems, and seeds of Phragmites enabling it to be more aggressive than native species. If these relationships could be disrupted, Phragmites may not compete so aggressively for resources and native flora could dominate assemblages. Additionally, research suggests that native species can benefit from interactions with certain endophytes. If native plants could be inoculated with beneficial endophytes, the native plants could see benefits such as increased growth rates, seed production, and/or tolerance to drought. While these relationships are thought to exist, there is currently no coordinated research examining the ways in which the relationships can be disrupted to control Phragmites and harnessed to improve competitive outcomes of other plant species. Research into habitat restoration or invasive species control often occurs in a vacuum (i.e., individual researchers are isolated from one another aside from the occasional conference), which leads to research overlap, knowledge gaps, and a slow, incremental pace of answering practical questions. Creating a collaborative of scientists dedicated to a common goal will lead to thoughtful, organized, targeted research that will ultimately advance the science and practice of utilizing fungal relationships in restoration activities. In addition, an effective collaborative can maximize the collective impact of research efforts (i.e., produce an outcome not attainable from individual participants alone). USGS has been awarded funding through the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative to focus on Phragmites control in the region. The USGS is involved in and actively supporting research that advances the use of symbiotic-control mechanisms. This collaborative structure will ensure that individual research projects are supporting a specific purpose within the collective goal and will develop a web of communication and information sharing that could be an asset to individual projects. Initiative 3. Nutrients and Harmful Algal Blooms Collaborative. Harmful and Nuisance Algal Bloom (HAB) research and management is challenging because causes of HABs are dispersed in space and often disjunct from HABs occurrence. Meeting this challenge requires increased coordination across research areas and locations and a backbone boundary organization to ensure that coordination. We propose to establish a Great Lakes HABs collaborative to serve as the boundary space where critical scientific synthesis and translation can occur in support of regional HABS management. Building on similar approaches, notably the Great Lakes Phragmites Collaborative, the Great Lakes Commission, already a boundary organization, will serve as the institutional backbone to support the HABs collaborative. Unlike the Phragmites Collaborative which is much broader in its endeavors, the HABS collaborative will maintain a principal focus on building science-based information sharing. Initiative 4. Invasive Mussels Collaborative. Invasive zebra and quagga mussels (Dreissena polymorpha and D. rostriformis bugensis, respectively) are causing significant ecological and economic damage as they spread from the Great Lakes across North America, from the Hudson River in the east to Lake Mead in the west. They clog water intake pipes, litter beaches with their sharp shells, disrupt established food webs, alter nutrient cycling in a way that harms native ecosystems, and contribute to other problems. An Integrated Pest Management approach and a collaborative science and communication framework are needed to address this issue. To accomplish this, a collective impact approach is being proposed, with the Great Lakes Commission acting as the &#8220;backbone organization&#8221; to lead the coordination, organization, and logistical needs of the Collaborative. As in #3 above, we envision the Great Lakes Invasive Mussels Collaborative serving as the boundary space where critical scientific synthesis and translation can occur in support of regional mussels management.
GrantorContactEmailDescription: gwalker@usgs.gov
GrantorContactText: Gail Walker &lt;br/&gt;Contract Specialist &lt;br/&gt;Phone 3032369334