UMRR Long Term Resource Monitoring

The UMESC Activity Report is sent out to our partners. The Activity Report has most of the publications and high profile products that our center scientists were involved in and goes to about 1500 different partners.

Previous studies and experience have demonstrated that some locks and dams operate as bottlenecks or pinch points for invasive carp populations and range expansion because of unique hydraulic conditions and operations at these dams. As compared to dams without these unique conditions, pinch-point dams restrict upstream fish passage to the lock chamber and result in limited (but not zero) upstream...

The Mississippi River is of global importance to persons and to the wildlife that live on and migrate along the river corridor. Data collected and processed by the Long-Term Resource Monitoring (LTRM) element of the Upper Mississippi River Restoration (UMRR) Program serves to help us understand, restore, and protect this remarkable ecosystem. The LTRM has collected aquatic and floodplain...

The Upper Mississippi River, along with a few other rivers worldwide, has experienced a remarkable increase in aquatic vegetation over the last 25 years. Using complex community modeling, scientists are determing where, what species, and why, aquatic vegetation increases were observed in the Mississippi River. This information can help us understand the natural recovery of aquatic plants, and how...

Ecosystem states are bundles of biological and physical characteristics that occur regularly in a habitat. They are used to help understand ecosystems and to communicate which state conditions are desirable or unhealthy. Scientists hypothesized that there are several different ecosystem states in the Mississippi river, with one of them being the best for waterfowl, and therefore a desirable goal...

Aquatic vegetation is a foundational element of life in aquatic systems, providing food and habitat for several species, and aquatic vegetation restoration is a high priority for Mississippi River managers. Understanding why plants grow in certain places, but not others is important for successful restoration efforts. This study evaluated the constraints on aquatic vegetation growth by using...

Aquatic vegetation provides numerous ecosystem services, including food for wildlife, water clarification, fisheries habitat, and natural beauty. This project evaluated the vegetation community types in the Mississippi River. By comparing vegetation abundance data to environmental factors, scientists were able to predict the type of vegetation that might be expected in segments of the river system...

Shallow lakes are a key resource for waterfowl species, so protecting and restoring these areas is of great importance to managing their populations. This study evaluated the effectiveness of management practices on shallow lakes and their influence on waterbird populations that depend on them. Researchers found that lake management actions increased the abundance of submerged aquatic vegetation...

The overall objective of this study is to develop a hydrogeomorphic based conceptual model and hierarchical classification system for the UMRS. This model and classification system will build off the existing classification systems for the UMRS with a new aspect of potential for geomorphic change.

Aquatic vegetation is a key component of large floodplain river ecosystems. In the Upper Mississippi River System (UMRS), there is a long-standing interest in restoring aquatic vegetation in areas where it has declined or disappeared. To better understand what constrains vegetation distribution in large river ecosystems and inform ongoing efforts to restore submersed aquatic vegetation (SAV), we...

Wind fetch is defined as the unobstructed distance that wind can travel over water in a constant direction. Fetch is an important characteristic of open water because longer fetch can result in larger wind-generated waves. The larger waves, in turn, can increase shoreline erosion and sediment re-suspension.

Forests are the dominant land cover along the floodplain of the Upper Mississippi River System. These forests are primarily made up of relatively short-lived and rapidly growing species, such as willow, cottonwood, silver maple, green ash, American elm, but with inclusions of slower growing and longer-lived species, such as oak and hickory species.