Report Number: 35832
Permit Number: CRLA-2005-SCI-0003
Current Status: Checked in
Date Received: Mar 17, 2006
Reporting Year:
2005
Principal Investigator:
Dr Dixon Landers,
Corvallis, OR
Additional investigator(s):
Adrienne Marler,
Annie Ingersoll, Dan Jaffe, Doug Glavich, Linda Geiser, Marilyn Erway, Staci Simonich, Tamara Blett
Park-assigned Study Id. #
CRLA-00007
Permit Expiration Date:
Dec 31, 2006
Permit Start Date:
Jun 01, 2005
Study Starting Date:
Jun 01, 2005
Study Ending Date:
Dec 31, 2006
Study Status:
Continuing
Activity Type:
Research
Subject/Discipline:
Ecology (Aquatic, Marine,
Terrestrial)
Objectives:
The Western Airborne
Contaminants Assessment Project (WACAP) was designed and implemented by the
National Park Service’s Air Resources Division, in cooperation with many western
Parks, to provide spatially extensive, site specific, and temporally resolved
information regarding the exposure, accumulation, and impacts of airborne
contaminants in these ecosystems. WACAP was designed as a six-year program, with
the first year for pilot work and method development, years two through five for
sample collection and analyses, and year six for data analyses and publications.
The purpose of this effort is to establish the degree of risk that western
national parks may be experiencing from the long-range transport of airborne
contaminants.
Specific WACAP Objectives are to:
-
Determine if contaminants are present in
Western National Parks
-
If present, determine where contaminants
are accumulating (geographically and by elevation)
-
If present, determine which contaminants
pose a potential ecological threat
-
Determine which indicators appear to be
the most useful to address contamination
-
Determine the sources for contaminants
measured at the national park sites
Eight national parks participate as primary
parks in WACAP: Denali, Gates of the Arctic, Glacier, Mount Rainier, Noatak,
Olympic, Rocky Mountain, and Sequoia. A supplemental study was initiated in 2005
to assess the concentration of semi-volatile organic compounds (SOCs) in
vegetation (lichens and conifer needles) in additional parks. Eleven parks and
one national forest participated in this supplemental study: Bandelier, Big
Bend, Crater Lake, Glacier Bay, Grand Teton, Great Sand Dunes, Katmai, Lassen,
North Cascades, Wrangell-St. Elias, and Yosemite National Parks, and the Tongass
National Forest. In addition, passive air sampling devices (PASDs) were
co-located with a vegetation sampling site at each park. The data obtained by
this additional vegetation sampling and the PASDs will create a broader spatial
context for contaminants being assessed as part of WACAP in the eight other
primary western parks that participate in the project. These results will also
be used to make a recommendation to NPS on which passive air samplers (natural
or man-made) are most appropriate for I&M of air toxics in future studies.
Detailed information about WACAP, including
the WACAP Research Plan and peer review report, is available at
http://www2.nature.nps.gov/air/Studies/air_toxics/wacap.cfm. A peer review of
the project was conducted in December 2002, and the final WACAP Research Plan
was completed in May 2003. The contaminants of interest for the supplemental
vegetation study are a broad range of compounds that contain a variety of SOCs
and persistent organic pollutants (POPs) such as PCB (polychlorinated biphenyl),
DDT, and HCH (hexachlorocyclohexanes). These materials are direct or indirect
products of human industrial activity and can be transported thousands of miles
in the atmosphere either in the gas phase or as fine particles.
A variety of ecosystem indicators are
sampled in the eight primary parks in WACAP to provide information about
contaminant accumulation. These indicators include:
-
Snow, to measure direct atmospheric
loading;
-
Fish, to measure food web impacts and
bioaccumulation;
-
Water, to measure hydrophilic current-use
chemicals;
-
Lake sediments, to provide information
about historic trends of contaminant loading to watersheds;
-
Vegetation, to measure food web impacts
and bioaccumulation; and
-
Moose meat, to sample subsistence food
items (other than fish) in Alaska parks.
Snow is sampled at each site each year for
three years, while the other indicators are sampled once during the project. A
final data base and report will be prepared that will provide information on the
exposure, historic and seasonal trends, and bioaccumulation of airborne
contaminants in these national parks.
Findings and Status: Accomplishments
for the Western Airborne Contaminants Assessment Project (WACAP) in 2005 include
the continued development of sampling and analytical methods, the analysis of
samples collected in 2003, 2004, and 2005, the collection of snow or bulk
precipitation from eight national parks, the collection of vegetation from 11
national parks and one national forest, and the collection of fish, sediment,
and lake water from two sites in Mt. Rainier National Park, two sites in Glacier
National Park, and two sites in Olympic National Park.
Vegetation was sampled at 5 sites in Crater
Lake NP at a range of elevation from 1798 to 2713 meters in August, 2005. Site
#1 was west of the Lodgepole Picnic areas and just southeast of Bear Bluff, in a
lodgepole pine stand at an elevation of 1798 meters. Site #2 was northwest of
road 62 and northeast of Whitehorse Pond, in a mixed conifer stand (white fir,
lodgepole pine, and mountain hemlock) at an elevation of 1859 meters. The ground
was rocky with a ground cover dominated by bearberry manzanita and grouse
huckleberry. The lichen community was dominated by mixed Bryoria species with
some Alectoria and Letharia. Site #3 was on a meadow bench just off the
Lightning Springs trail, west of Rim Drive, at an elevation of 2134 meters. This
site was in a meadow with clumps of old Shasta fir and mountain hemlock, and the
ground was sandy, with dry soil covered mostly with grass and buckwheat. Site #4
was on the southwest side of Mt. Scott, approximately 1.6 kilometers up the Mt.
Scott trail at an elevation of 2423 meters. This site was in a whitebark pine
stand with some mountain hemlock and red fir. The slope was steep and rocky with
very little vegetation. The lichens were mostly mixed Bryoria and Letharia
species. Site #5 was at the top of Mt. Scott on the northeast side of the fire
lookout at an elevation of 2713 meters. This site was on a gently sloping rocky
summit ridge vegetated by clumps of small whitebark pine and some high elevation
herbs (pasque flower, paintbrush, penstemon and bunch grasses). No lichens were
found here.
Six conifer needle samples from second year
growth were collected, with sample weights of 100 grams. Five lichen samples
were collected, with weights ranging from 15 to 52 grams. The following species
were collected:
-
conifer needles of Abies magnifica from
sites #1, and #3;
-
conifer needles of Abies concolor from
site #2;
-
conifer needles of Pinus albicaulis from
sites #4 and #5; and
-
Letharia vulpina lichen from sites #1, #2,
#3, and #4
These vegetation samples were stored in
labeled bags and shipped in coolers to the analytical laboratory in Corvallis,
Oregon after collection, where they were stored at -20° C. Work is continuing on
these samples as they are being prepared for analysis of semi-volatile organic
compounds.
One passive air sampler was installed on
August 17, 2005, at Site #5 at an elevation of 2713 meters. The resin tube in
this sampler has a consistent uptake rate for air toxics, and after one year at
the site, the sampler will be retrieved and the resins extracted for analysis of
semi-volatile organic compounds.
Please note that the funding amounts
reported with this IAR are the total amounts provided by NPS for the WACAP
project at all 19 national parks in 2005.
For this study, were one or
more specimens collected and removed from the park but not destroyed during
analyses?
Yes
Funding provided this
reporting year by NPS:
1010715
Funding provided this
reporting year by other sources:
448160
Full name of college or
university: Oregon State University, University of
Washington-Bothell
Annual funding provided by
NPS to university or college this reporting year:
494667
