Visualizing Fish Community Trajectories and Ecosystem Health Indicators to Aid Management Goal Setting in the Upper Mississippi River System

Biological assessments have become essential components of efforts to assess the health of ecosystems.  Such assessments are easiest when the ecosystem is small and under a single management domain; they are most difficult when ecosystems are large and encompass a multitude of management authorities and jurisdictions.  Large ecosystems present additional challenges in that communication among vested agencies and stakeholders is complicated by distance and simple administrative barriers.  Moreover, large ecosystems rarely have standardized assessment data upon which to make rigorous assessments.

We use the Upper Mississippi River System (UMRS) as a case study in how to conduct ecosystem health assessments in large, complex ecosystems.  We present a history of purposeful progression in such assessments, demonstrate the critical value of investing in long term standardized biological assessments, and the utility in conceiving novel ways to engage and communicate patterns in resource status and trends to multitudinous public and private partners responsible for managing this complex ecosystem.  Our methods rely on rigorous scientific sampling protocols standardized across a spatial gradient of 1200 miles, integrated and web-enabled database platforms, and customized data visualization tools to enable access to data rich databases and facilitate communication among vested natural resource partners.