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At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
USGS2018

Habitat Needs Assessment‐II for the Upper Mississippi River Restoration Program: Linking science to management perspectives

The Upper Mississippi River Restoration (UMRR) Program vision statement is for a healthier and more resilient Upper Mississippi River ecosystem that sustains the river’s multiple uses. To address this vision, the UMRR Program recently developed a suite of 12 indicators that quantify aspects of ecosystem health and resilience (i.e., connectivity, redundancy and diversity, and controlling variables). These indicators reflect the ability of large floodplain river ecosystems to adapt and respond to disturbances. The primary purpose of this document is to help inform the UMRR Program in selecting, designing, and evaluating future restoration projects using these indicators and professional knowledge to achieve the UMRR Program’s vision.

Report↗
USGS2018

Upper Mississippi River Restoration Program Long Term Resource Monitoring element—Spatial data query tool

The Upper Mississippi River Restoration (UMRR) Program Long Term Resource Monitoring (LTRM) element has been monitoring fish, water quality, and vegetation in six study pools in the Upper Mississippi River system for approximately 30 years. Geographic locations were recorded for all sampling points. All of this information has been made publicly available by way of data download and visualization tools ( https://www.umesc.usgs.gov/ltrm-home.html ), but it has not been available to decision makers, scientists, resource managers, and the public by way of an internet-based mapping and query application. Presenting the information in this way is vital to providing decision makers with the information and understanding needed to maintain the Upper Mississippi River system as a viable multiple-use river ecosystem, the primary mission of the UMRR LTRM. Spatial data query tools have been developed that allow the query, display, mapping, and data extraction of the UMRR LTRM element component data by means of an easy-to-use graphical user interface. A separate spatial data query tool application was developed for each study pool within the Upper Mississippi River system and is accessible as individual links at the bottom of the website located at https://www.umesc.usgs.gov/ltrmp/spatial_data_query_tool.html . In addition to the UMRR LTRM element component data, the spatial data query tool also contains land cover and bathymetric (water depth) data collected by the UMRR LTRM element.

Upper Mississippi River↗
USGS2026

Proceedings of the Floodplain Vegetation Monitoring Workshop for the Long Term Resource Monitoring Element of the Upper Mississippi River Restoration Program, January 7–8, 2025, Moline, Illinois

Preface In anticipation for increased funding made possible by the Water Resources Development Act of 2020, the Upper Mississippi River Restoration (UMRR) Program identified a need to conduct river-wide assessments of floodplain vegetation. In January 2025, we assembled a group of subject matter experts to perform the following tasks: Review Upper Mississippi River Restoration’s current floodplain vegetation research portfolio, Identify important features and goals for long-term floodplain vegetation monitoring, Evaluate the suitability of existing datasets for system-wide vegetation assessments, and Discuss emerging opportunities to learn about floodplain vegetation dynamics from local-scale restoration and management projects. This document is a summarization of what occurred at the meeting and provides suggested next steps toward developing the capacity to conduct routine long-term monitoring and assessment of floodplain vegetation as part of the Upper Mississippi River Restoration Program.

Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Wisconsin↗
USGS2026

Decision analysis of long-term research and monitoring investments for the Upper Mississippi River Restoration program

Congressional authorization of the Water Resource Development Act of 2020 increased funding for the Upper Mississippi River Restoration (UMRR) program and its Long Term Resource Monitoring (LTRM) element. With adequate resources there is an opportunity for LTRM to expand its understanding of the Upper Mississippi River System, address unmet partner information needs, and better inform restoration and management of the Upper Mississippi River System. Additional information needs will need to be identified and prioritized in a manner that accounts for potential tradeoffs among the preferences of UMRR partners for long-term commitments of effort. In this report, we describe a decision analysis process used by UMRR partners to develop a comprehensive framework for prioritizing and selecting the information needs they would address in the event of changes in available resources. The partners of the UMRR formed a “planning team” with members representing the UMRR partner agencies to work through the decision analysis process. This team included two facilitators who led the decision analysis process. The planning team began this process by articulating a consensus understanding of the specific decisions to be made and identifying a set of decision outcomes (objectives) the UMRR partners wanted to achieve. Next, they identified information needs not being addressed by ongoing monitoring and research, developed criteria for assessing the expected benefit of addressing each information need, and estimated the costs of addressing each information need. They then used an optimization approach to identify the portfolio of information needs that would produce the most benefit for a given cost if they were effectively addressed. Originally, the planning team expected this analysis to inform a project plan that would start in 2024, but in recognition of financial uncertainties, we refer to planning dates as the number of years after resources become available (for example, “year 1,” “year 2,” and so on).

Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Wisconsin↗
USGS2025

Evaluating hydrologic data products for scientific and management applications related to potential future streamflow conditions in the Upper Mississippi and Illinois Rivers

The hydrology of the Upper Mississippi and Illinois Rivers is a fundamental driver of ecosystem patterns and processes across a large portion of the United States. Quantitative hydrologic data for the main stems of these rivers underlie numerous scientific investigations, statistical models, and decision-making processes for local, State, and Federal agencies involved in the Upper Mississippi River Restoration program. Although historical hydrologic data exist, data representing potential future conditions of the Upper Mississippi and Illinois Rivers lack the resolution necessary to anticipate biotic and abiotic responses to altered hydrology and to determine resilient management actions. A source of future hydrologic scenarios is the readily available LOCA–VIC–mizuRoute hydrologic data products (named for the chain of models the data are produced from—localized constructed analogs, Variable Infiltration Capacity macroscale hydrological model, and the mizuRoute hydrologic routing model—that we shorten further to LVM in this report) that include simulated discharges for historic and future timeframes. The objective of this study is to assess the reliability of the hydrologic data products for their use in Upper Mississippi River Restoration program applications. Key study questions are (1) do the hydrologic data products reproduce characteristics of hydrology necessary to support ecological modeling and restoration decision-making applications within the Upper Mississippi River Restoration program? and (2) are there geographic differences in the reliability of the hydrologic data products? Seven characteristics of river hydrology were selected related to flow magnitude, seasonality, and regime for evaluation. The seven characteristics were calculated using observed and historical simulated hydrologic data at 19 U.S. Geological Survey streamgages throughout the basins of the Upper Mississippi and Illinois Rivers; two streamgages are located on the main stem of the Mississippi River and two streamgages are located on the main stem of the Illinois River. Statistical comparisons between observed and historical simulated characteristics indicated that the hydrologic data products did not reliably represent historical hydrologic conditions in the basin or main stem. The hydrologic data products we evaluated could not reliably capture the overall hydrologic regime or flow magnitudes; the latter is evidenced by substantial underestimates of discharge at most streamgages. Seasonal hydrologic characteristics were captured more reliably than flow magnitude, but overall correspondence was low for most streamgages. A weak latitudinal pattern in seasonal characteristics indicated the hydrologic data products poorly represent streamflow timing in snow-affected regions of the basin. Discrepancies in magnitude, seasonality, and regime indicate the potential for multiple sources of error. Because poor correspondence was present across all 19 streamgages, it was not possible to identify specific drivers of poor performance (that is, drainage area or geography). The modeling chain should be evaluated for biases associated with meteorologic forcing data, as well as hydrologic model formulation and calibration. We conclude that the hydrologic data products we evaluated appear unsuitable for applications tied to habitat and ecosystem restoration and management in the Upper Mississippi and Illinois Rivers. Plans to develop a future hydrology dataset for the Upper Mississippi River Restoration program would benefit from ongoing work to improve global climate model output downscaling methods, to improve hydrologic models, to make use of innovations in machine-learning approaches for projecting hydrology, and other efforts. The framework developed herein to evaluate hydrometeorological outputs generated using global climate models for a specific water resources application is a transferrable approach that could be applied to other data products and river systems.

Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Sout↗
USGS2020

Smallmouth buffalo (Ictiobus bubalus) growth across a 1200km human use and ecological disturbance gradient in the Upper Mississippi River System

Smallmouth buffalo (Ictiobus bubalus) is a common and widely distributed large-bodied species of the family Catostomidae. It inhabits large rivers and reservoirs of the eastern continental United States (east of the continental Divide) and is most abundant and common in the large rivers of the Midwest and Central Plains, though it does occur as far north and east as the Hudson Bay drainage and as far south and west as Arizona (Edwards and Twoney 1982). Historically, smallmouth buffalo were an important component of commercial fisheries on both the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers. However, following the introduction of common carp (Cyprinus carpio) in the mid-1800s (Carlander 1954), the construction of a system of navigation dams on Upper Mississippi and Illinois River in the 1930s (USGS 1999), and water quality/pollution issues through the 1980s (Weiner 2010), the role of smallmouth buffalo in the overall UMRS fish community and commercial fishery has generally diminished relative to historical standards. Still, smallmouth buffalo remains an important and valued component of the UMRS commercial fishery. The study area is represented by three study reaches on the Illinois River and three study reaches on the Upper Mississippi River (Figure 1). Collectively, these study reaches represent nearly 1200 river km and exist across strong and pronounced ecological and disturbance gradients. For example, habitat composition, water quality, commercial navigation intensity, aquatic plant prominence, and the number and abundance of nonnative fish species vary strongly across the study domain, with northern Mississippi River reaches exhibiting less navigation traffic, better water quality, markedly greater aquatic plant prominence, more diverse habitat composition, and comparably much smaller numbers of nonnative species than the lower Mississippi River study reach and those on the Illinois River (USGS 1999; Johnson and Hagerty [eds] 2008; Irons et al. 2009). Long term monitoring efforts conducted under the auspices of the Upper Mississippi River Restoration program over the past 27 years have provided tremendous insights into shifts and changes of the overall UMRS fish community (Ickes et al. 2005; Garvey et al. 2010; Schramm and Ickes 2016). However, these monitoring efforts observe only the most basic aspects of the UMRS fish community (i.e., catch, length, weight, distribution, and occurrence). To gain a greater understanding of forces driving community level shifts and changes, more directed study is needed on the functional attributes of fish populations (i.e., growth, mortality, recruitment). Collectively, these functional attributes of populations are termed population dynamics and/or vital rates. It is important to note, the population dynamics of fishes in large rivers is generally poorly understood, especially for non-game species (Ickes 2018). The prevailing view is that abiotic factors largely govern inter-annual population dynamics, typically based upon rather short-term observations and correlations with assorted abiotic river attributes that vary on a seasonal or annual basis (for example, Risotto and Turner 1985). However, the role that longer-term abiotic factors play in regulating population abundance, or that biotic factors internal to the population (e.g., spawner-recruit dynamics, growth dynamics) or external to the population (e.g., predator-prey dynamics, sympatric competitors, disease) remain poorly understood. Achieving a greater understanding of these dynamics is important for stock, game, and invasive species management. In 2017, as part of a larger study designed to gain vital population rate information for smallmouth buffalo in the Upper Mississippi and Illinois Rivers (“Smallmouth Buffalo population demographics of the Upper Mississippi River System”; UMRR LTRM 2018SOW project items 2018MMBF1-2018MMBF6) annual growth patterns in smallmouth buffalo were determined and evaluated. This was accomplished by measuring growth histories recorded in annual growth increments on hard bony parts (here otoliths), a method known generically as biochronology, and somewhat analogous to dendrochronology practiced by foresters. These methods allow one to generate time-series of annual growth histories that depend upon age, year class (i.e., cohort), and annual environmental conditions experienced by the population over time (Weisberg, 1993). Biochronology methods were used to develop a 36-year time series of smallmouth buffalo growth in the Upper Mississippi and Illinois Rivers across a 1200 km ecological and human use disturbance gradient. Annual growth intervals were identified and measured from otoliths to determine fish age and growth history. A mixed model that parses the growth increment into age and year effects was fit to these data. Given the pronounced ecological and disturbance gradients inherent to the UMRS and the study domain, an a priori expectation of differing patterns in growth is accepted as a null hypothesis to test. The goal of this study was to model smallmouth buffalo growth as a function of the age of the fish and the growth year in which the growth was gained. The primary modeling objective was to parse growth observed on each annulus into a portion attributable to the age of the fish and the portion attributable to the year in which the growth was gained. In effect, this modeling approach removes the somewhat trivial age effects on growth so that a non-confounded growth year effect can be gained. Results attributable to growth year provide a time series of growth information that is of the same duration as the oldest fish observed and solely reflects environmental influences on growth. These model responses can then be investigated relative to environmental covariate time-series suspected of influencing growth of smallmouth buffalo in the Upper Mississippi and Illinois Rivers (e.g., temperature, discharge, population density, population mortality, forage availability, sympatric competition, habitat composition, navigation intensity, nonnative fish prominence, etc.). Thus, the primary scientific objective was to investigate if and how smallmouth buffalo growth varies in accordance with innate ecological and disturbance gradients across the study domain.

Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Wisconsin↗
USGS2024

The where and why of large wood occurrence in the Upper Mississippi and Illinois Rivers

Large wood (LW) plays important geomorphic and ecological roles in rivers and is widely used as a restoration tool. Changes to floodplain land use and historical removal have altered wood dynamics in fluvial systems globally. We know little about the distribution and dynamics of LW in great rivers (approximately >10 5 km 2 ) like the Upper Mississippi and Illinois Rivers despite its ecosystem importance and use in restoration projects. We assessed LW occurrence data collected by the fisheries component of the Upper Mississippi River Restoration Program's Long Term Resource Monitoring element. We analysed 25 years of data collected across six reaches of the Upper Mississippi and Illinois Rivers that represented contrasting physiographic settings, and across four aquatic area types comprising gradients of hydrology, connectivity and geomorphology. We tested hypotheses on drivers of LW occurrence using generalised linear mixed effects models, where occurrence was predicted by reach- and local-scale environmental variables. Occurrence varied significantly across reaches and aquatic area types. In general, wood occurred more frequently upriver and in side channels compared to other aquatic areas. Large wood was most strongly predicted systemically by reach identity but not local-scale variables, underscoring the importance of broad-scale physiographic gradients in defining hydrogeomorphic processes. Floodplain forests and shoreline revetment were consistently important predictors across reaches. Our findings show that the spatial variability of LW occurrence reflects the physical variability of the Upper Mississippi and Illinois Rivers. They also reveal the value in using geomorphic classifications as frameworks for understanding physical processes like LW dynamics because of their ability to contextualise site-scale conditions. The baseline understanding of LW abundance across different hydrogeomorphic gradients and scales presented here can give insight into how to more effectively target restoration efforts in great rivers and contribute to a broader understanding of LW dynamics where such studies have been lacking.

Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Wisconsin↗
USGS2025

Long Term Resource Monitoring procedures—Aquatic vegetation monitoring

This standard operating procedure (SOP) manual describes the collection of standardized, long-term data for aquatic vegetation communities in selected study pools of the Upper Mississippi River System in the United States. The primary intent of the data collection is to assess the status and trends that aid in understanding the unique river ecosystem and to guide large-scale ecological restoration of the river and its biological communities, like aquatic plants and their dependent wildlife. This SOP is an update to the version published in 2000 and reflects modifications to sample sizes and additions of new data collection procedures. All long-term monitoring programs and their SOPs must be adapted to changing conditions and be improved through learning, and this SOP clarifies procedures and adds new elements since the initial SOP was written more than 25 years ago. The SOP is intended for multiple audiences, including vegetation specialists through the Upper Mississippi River Restoration Program, data analysts using the publicly available data generated through this SOP, and natural resource managers and restoration practitioners who need data and science to guide some decisions. This SOP may be transferable and adaptable to other ecosystems when the aquatic plant community is the focus.

Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Wisconsin↗
USGS2022

Ecological status and trends of the Upper Mississippi and Illinois Rivers

Executive Summary This report assesses the status and trends of selected ecological health indicators of the Upper Mississippi River System (UMRS) based on the data collected and analyzed by the Long Term Resource Monitoring element of the Upper Mississippi River Restoration program, supplemented with data from other sources. This report has four objectives: providing a brief introduction of the UMRS, including its significance, history, modern-day stressors, and recent research; using ecological indicators to describe the status of the river system and where and how it has changed from circa 1993 to 2019; discussing management and restoration implications of these changes; and highlighting the fundamental role of long-term monitoring in the understanding, management, and restoration of large-floodplain rivers. The data were collected in the six Long Term Resource Monitoring element study reaches that spanned much of the UMRS and the various gradients contained therein. These study reaches included Navigation Pools 4, 8, 13, and 26; the part of the Unimpounded Reach of the Upper Mississippi River between Grand Tower and Cairo, Illinois; and the La Grange Pool on the Illinois River. The indicators included in this report describe the status and trends for the hydrology, geomorphology, floodplain vegetation, water quality, vegetation, and fishes of the UMRS. Many of the indicators of river ecosystem health changed significantly over the nearly 30 years of our evaluation. However, there was substantial spatial variability in the magnitude and timing of those changes among study reaches. Few indicators changed everywhere or nowhere; most indicators changed in some reaches but not others. The quantitative assessments of these indicators describe how the conditions of the river differ across hydrogeomorphic and climate gradients and through time and are intended to support the restoration and management of the UMRS.

Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nort↗
USGS2016

Accuracy assessment/validation methodology and results of 2010–11 land-cover/land-use data for Pools 13, 26, La Grange, and Open River South, Upper Mississippi River System

Introduction/Background The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)-Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center (UMESC) was responsible for development of several land cover/land use (LCU) systemic datasets of the Upper Mississippi River System (UMRS). These efforts (1989 and 2000) were funded by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Upper Mississippi River Restoration Program (UMRR) Long Term Resource Monitoring (LTRM) element. Development of systemic datasets includes the acquisition, processing, and serving of high-resolution aerial photography and land cover/land use spatial datasets ( http://www.umesc.usgs.gov/data_library/land_cover_use/land_cover_use_data.html ). In 2008, the UMRR reached a collaborative agreement with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service-Region 3 to collect high-resolution digital imagery of the entire UMRS floodplain during 2010–11 for LTRM. The UMESC helped acquire, process, and serve this imagery, as well as produce and serve the 2010–11 LCU systemic dataset of the UMRS floodplain. Digital imagery for Pools 13, 26, La Grange, and Open River South was collected using an Applanix DSS 439 digital sensor system with a 40 millimeter lens and Color Infrared (CIR) filter. The imagery was collected at a resolution of 20 centimeters/pixel (8 inches/pixel) for Pool 13 and 40 centimeters/pixel (16 inches/pixel) for Pools 26, Open River South, and La Grange. All imagery was projected to Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) Zone 15, North American Datum of 1983 (NAD 83). The General Wetland Vegetation Classification (GWVC) system used for mapping is hierarchical, and its 31 classes can be collapsed into broader categories using either a 15- or 7-class level. While the 1989 and 2000 LCU systemic datasets have not gone through a traditional thematic accuracy assessment (AA) in the past, nor have they undergone a validation analysis, the end products are of high quality. For each systemic dataset produced (1989, 2000, 2010–11), extensive field reconnaissance is performed before photointerpretation. The intent of this field reconnaissance is to learn, test, and verify image signatures as they relate to vegetation types. Questionable areas on the imagery are visited, and the plants or land features observed in the area are recorded for reference. This procedure verifies vegetation signatures on the imagery with those on the ground. In addition, once the photointerpretation is complete, the final LCU dataset undergoes extensive quality assurance/quality control to ensure the imagery is mapped correctly. Since the 2000 LCU systemic dataset was developed, there has been a growing interest in completing thematic AAs for the LTRM LCU spatial datasets. The objective of an AA is to measure the probability that a particular location has been assigned its correct vegetation class. An AA estimates thematic (map class) errors in the data, giving users information needed to determine data suitability for a particular application. At the same time, data producers are able to learn more about the nature of errors in the data. Thus, the two attributes of an AA are “producers’ accuracy,” which is the probability that an AA point has been mapped correctly (also referred to as an error of omission); and “users’ accuracy,” which is the probability that the map actually represents what was found on the ground (also referred to as error of commission). Producers’ and users’ accuracies can be obtained from the same set of data by using different analyses. Accuracy assessment is an extensive effort that requires seasonal field personnel and equipment, data entry, analyses, and post processing—tasks that are costly and time consuming. The geospatial team at the UMESC has suggested a validation process for understanding the accuracy of the spatial datasets, which will be tested on at least some areas of the UMRS. Validation is not a true verification of map-class type in the field; however, it can provide the user of the map with useful information that is similar to a field AA. Similar to an AA, validation involves generating random points based on the total area for each map class. However, instead of collecting field data, two or three individuals not involved with the photo-interpretative mapping separately review each of the points onscreen and record a best-fit vegetation type(s) for each site. Once the individual analyses are complete, results are joined together and a comparative analysis is performed. The objective of this initial analysis is to identify areas where the validation results were in agreement (matches) and areas where validation results were in disagreement (mismatches). The two or three individuals then perform an analysis, looking at each mismatched site, and agree upon a final validation class. (If two vegetation types at a specific site appear to be equally prevalent, the validation team is permitted to assign the site two best-fit vegetation types.) Following the validation team’s comparative analysis of vegetation assignments, the data are entered into a database and compared to the mappers’ vegetation assignments. Agreements and disagreements between the map and validation classes are identified, and a contingency table is produced. This document presents the AA processes/results for Pools 13 and La Grange, as well as the validation process/results for Pools 13 and 26 and Open River South.

Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, Wisconsin↗
USGS2019

Scientific Framework for resilience research on the Upper Mississippi River System

The goal of this research framework is to outline research that would continue to improve our understanding of ecological resilience of the Upper Mississippi River System (UMRS) and inform management of the system for health and resilience. We provide a broad overview of recently completed and ongoing work that has been funded as a part of the UMRS Ecological Resilience Assessment and related efforts to provide context for how proposed research questions build upon our current knowledge and may inform restoration planning and design. We describe two primary objectives within this research framework - the first objective is to investigate hypothesized drivers and feedbacks related to specified resilience, and the second is to expand our utility of general resilience indicators through further development and evaluation. The intended audience for this framework is the Upper Mississippi River Restoration Program (UMRR). The UMRR partnership is made up of natural resource agencies from five states (Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri and Wisconsin) and five federal agencies (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Geological Survey, and USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service).

Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Wisconsin↗
USGS2020

2020 Four-band aerial imagery testing and acquisition for 2020 land cover/land use mission

The aerial camera testing project lays the groundwork for the collection of aerial imagery that will be used in the creation of the next iteration of systemic land cover/land use data for the Upper Mississippi River System. Prior to acquisition in the summer of 2020, the new 4-band aerial camera will be assessed for image quality at various resolutions and be compared to the camera used for the 2010/2011 collection. Systemic aerial imagery has been acquired, and vegetation datasets derived from that imagery, by the Upper Mississippi River Restoration Program’s Long Term Resource Monitoring element on a decadal basis beginning in 1989 and follow-up imagery missions in 2000 and 2010/2011. Remote sensing and geographic information system technology has changed dramatically during this time, transitioning from a workflow based on 9-inch by 9-inch aerial film-based cameras to today’s 80-megapixel four-band digital camera. In addition to the camera testing, this report also provides historical information of previous aerial imagery acquisition efforts and how that process has continued to advance in the 30 years since the Program’s genesis.

Long Term Resource Monitoring Technical Report↗
USGS2021

Evaluation of a “trace” plant density score in LTRM vegetation monitoring

The Long Term Resource Monitoring (LTRM) element of the Upper Mississippi River Restoration program employs a harvest method for sampling submersed aquatic vegetation (SAV) whereby a rake is dragged ~1.5 m over the substrate and plant materials are retrieved. “Plant density” (PD) scores indicate SAV abundance and are based on the amount of plant material collected on the teeth of the rake. Standard PD scores are ordered, whole numbers from 0 (no SAV on the rake) to 5 (80-100% of rake teeth full) and are assigned at each subsite for all species combined and for each individual species. In LTRM monitoring between 1998 and 2018, ~73% of non-zero, all-species-combined PD scores were 1s, and ~89% of individual SAV species were 1s. The preponderance of PD = 1 scores along with the wide range of fresh mass represented by PD = 1 (quantified in Drake and Lund 2020) limits inference about SAV abundance from LTRM monitoring data. Field personnel noted that small plant fragments comprised a substantial fraction of PD = 1 observations and proposed a modification of the existing LTRM methods where PD = 1 was subdivided to include “trace” scores to represent such small fragments. Trace was defined as PD = 0.08, indicating a maximum of 1 of 13 gaps in the sampling rake filled to the level of an original PD = 1. Amounts of plant material greater than PD = 0.08 and up to the original score of 1 were defined PD = +1. This study used field data collected in 2018 (scoring and fresh weights of scored plant materials) from 136 vegetated sites in Pools 4, 8 and 13 to evaluate the proposed subdivision and to examine among-pool differences in PD data. In the study data, 33% of all-species-combined observations and 69% of species (grouped by morphology) that would previously have received a score of 1 were classified as PD = 0.08. PD scores of 0.08, +1, and 2-3 represented statistically distinct amounts of fresh mass in rake samples. There were systematic differences in the mass of SAV reflected by PD score based on plant morphology and species composition. The mean fresh mass of plant materials assigned a given PD score varied among the three pools, suggesting bias attributable to personnel. To reduce this bias in future data collection efforts, the field crews incorporated a calibration of plant density scores in annual field training. The results presented here describe how including a trace PD score in LTRM data collection improves the description of SAV abundance and consequently estimates of biomass from those PD scores. LTRM vegetation crews have recorded trace scores in annual sampling since 2019 as extra information (i.e. which does not change the LTRM data stream as 0.08 and +1 scores can still be combined for PD=1). Trace data are not currently available to outside users through the LTRM data browser but are available from vegetation component personnel upon request.

Long Term Resource Monitoring Technical Report↗
USGS2026

Perspectives and insights gained from applying landscape ecological approaches to the Upper Mississippi riverscape

Advances in remote sensing, spatial data collection, hydraulic and geospatial models, and the maturation of landscape ecology during the early 2000s spurred the concept of rivers as landscapes or ‘riverscapes’. Since that time, the Upper Mississippi River Restoration (UMRR) Program - one of the world’s longest running large-river ecosystem restoration and monitoring programs - has applied landscape ecological principles to the Upper Mississippi River System (UMRS). I examine spatial patterns of aquatic nutrient concentrations, submersed aquatic vegetation, and fish and mussel communities, finding that within-river patterns are often patchy in nature, likely resulting from how nutrient processes and community traits interact with spatial variability in hydraulic exchange patterns. Local-scale patchy spatial patterns in the UMRS are embedded in system-scale longitudinal gradients and a hierarchical view of the river has provided a foundation for strategic river restoration planning. Key Words: Aquatic Habitat, hydraulic connectivity, patch, restoration, riverscape

BioScience↗
USGS2025

Upper Mississippi River Restoration future hydrology meeting series

The Upper Mississippi River Restoration (UMRR) program, a broad partnership of State and Federal agencies administered by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, integrates ecosystem monitoring, research, and modeling to rehabilitate habitat and evaluate ecosystem trends over time in the Upper Mississippi River System. Hydrologic data are integral to the UMRR program because they are used in scientific research, decision-making, and restoration project planning. However, a lack of quantitative hydrologic data representing potential future conditions limits the ability to complete informative research on how future conditions may affect river ecology, achieve management goals, and design restoration projects for 50-year horizons. The U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers led a series of workshops with UMRR partners to (1) prioritize needs for understanding future hydrology, (2) discuss appropriate datasets that could address these needs, and (3) develop a plan for acquiring and distributing a hydrologic dataset of potential future conditions. Agency priorities for understanding future hydrology were broad, spanning ecologic, geomorphic, resource management, and engineering disciplines, and were identified for a range of spatial (project site, navigation pool, reach, system) and temporal (daily, seasonal, annual) scales. The LOcalized Constructed Analogs-Variable Infiltration Capacity-mizuRoute hydrologic data products were identified as a potential source of off-the-shelf data to meet UMRR priority needs but warranted a robust quantitative evaluation. The final meeting in the series scoped a proposal to evaluate the LOcalized Constructed Analogs-Variable Infiltration Capacity-mizuRoute hydrologic data products for use in UMRR applications, including contingencies if the data were determined to be unreliable.

Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Wisconsin↗
USGS2016

Documenting the use of the Long Term Resource Monitoring element’s fish monitoring methodologies throughout the Midwest

The Upper Mississippi River Restoration (UMRR) Program’s Long Term Resource Monitoring (LTRM) element is designed to monitor and assess long term trends in the Upper Mississippi River System (UMRS). To accomplish this, standardized methods are used that allow for comparisons across pools and rivers. In recent years, other projects and other agencies have adopted the LTRM fish methodologies for use outside the UMRR. To determine how widespread the use of the Fish Component’s methods are, a twelve question survey was delivered via SurveyMonkey.com through the states comprising the American Fisheries Society (AFS) North Central Division and the Upper Mississippi River Conservation Committee. Approximately 2,000 professionals were reached with ≈11 percent participating. Results indicate that nearly all (95 percent) respondents use standardized methods in their sampling and 48 percent are familiar with the LTRM fish methodologies. Roughly one-third (35 percent) of all respondents have used the methods in the past and most (78 percent) of those have modified the methods to suit the information needs specific to their fishery. Results indicate that the LTRM methods have indeed spread outside the UMRR and are now a well-known and potentially widely used technique to sample fish communities.

Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Wisconsin↗
USGS2025

Mapping potential sensitivity to hydrogeomorphic change in the UMRS riverscape

In 2020 the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), as part of the Upper Mississippi River Restoration (UMRR) Program, began a new project to characterize potential hydrogeomorphic change associated with hydrogeomorphic units (HGUs) and their catenae (units linked by their association with sediment sources and flow origins). The goal of the project was to develop a geographic information system (GIS) database of HGUs for the Upper Mississippi River System (UMRS) available to both scientists and river managers working on UMRR studies and HREP planning and design studies. The characterization was based on a hydrogeomorphic change hierarchical classification developed previously for the UMRS. The products were generated with automated techniques in a GIS using systemic datasets. Landforms were mapped from the 2015 UMRS topobathymetric dataset with geomorphon (shape-based) tools tailored for the large riverscape, valley bottom environments in the UMRS. A clustering analysis was applied to the resulting landforms to identify HGUs associated with zones of perennial low flows, bankfull flows, and overbank floodplains. Catenae were assembled based on the proximity of the units to the main channel, tributary mouths, and side channels from previously published aquatic areas (USACE, 2018) coupled with least-cost flowpath linkages between potential sediment origins and planform change units developed by Rogala, Fitzpatrick, and Henderson (2020). These GIS-based analyses were successful at identifying a range of HGUs using an automated technique with available data across the entire riverscape, with emphasis on those that have the potential for hydrogeomorphic change. Most of the resulting features are depositional, as expected in a large river system. However, this is the first attempt of linking tributary inputs, side channel erosion and levee breaches with their depositional counterparts. The approach was successfully piloted in Pools 8 and 10 in the Upper Impounded Reach and Pool 14 in the Lower Impounded Reach, with next steps for application in reaches of the unimpounded section and Illinois River. This report emphasizes results from Pool 10, which was the focus of most of our attention during the pilot phase.

Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Sout↗
USGS2015

General classification handbook for floodplain vegetation in large river systems

This handbook describes the General Wetland Vegetation Classification System developed as part of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Upper Mississippi River Restoration (UMRR) Program, Long Term Resource Monitoring (LTRM) element. The UMRR is a cooperative effort between the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the states of Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, and Wisconsin. The classification system consists of 31 general map classes and has been used to create systemic vegetation data layers throughout the diverse Upper Mississippi River System (UMRS), which includes the commercially navigable reaches of the Mississippi River from Minneapolis, Minnesota, in the north to Cairo, Illinois, in the south, the Illinois River, and navigable portions of the Kaskaskia, Black, St. Croix, and Minnesota Rivers. In addition, this handbook describes the evolution of the General Wetland Vegetation Classification System, discusses the process of creating a vegetation data layer, and describes each of the 31 map classes in detail. The handbook also acts as a pictorial guide to each of the map classes as they may appear in the field, as well as on color-infrared imagery. This version is an update to the original handbook published in 2004.

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