• NEW GRANT AWARDS FOR 2007
• NEW RESEARCH REPORTS PUBLISHED
• Bioenergy in Wisconsin: The Potential Supply of Forest Biomass and Its Relationship to Biodiversity
• Reduction in Mercury Loading: Timing and Magnitude of an Ecosystem Response
• Carbon and Greenhouse Gas Budgets for Wisconsin Forests and Forest Product Chains
• PROJECTS IN PROGRESS
• ONGOING ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING PROJECTS

All photos in this newsletter were submitted for the WDNR research project "Changes in Biodiversity in Selected Natural Communities," Craig Anderson, Principal Investigator.

NEW GRANT AWARDS FOR 2007
A result of our Autumn, 2006 Request for Proposals, four new projects will be funded. The process was highly competitive this year, as we received many excellent project proposals for our $235,000 funding. The following projects were chosen:

1. United States Geological Survey, Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center, Using NEXRAD Weather Radar to Minimize the Impact of Wind Energy Farms on Migrating Birds. Principal Investigator: Patricia Heglund. Grant:$52,411
2. WI Department of Natural Resources, Bureau of Endangered Resources, Applying the Natural Heritage Inventory Classification System to Characterize the Natural Communities in the Ongoing Peatlands Study. Principal Investigator: Eric Epstein. Grant: $33,090
3. UW-Madison, Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, Impacts of Past and Future Changes in Climate and Atmospheric CO2 on Wisconsin Agriculture. Principal Investigator: Christopher Kucharik. Grant: $80,134
4. WI Department of Natural Resources, UW-Trout Lake Station, Monitoring the Impact of Climate Change on Water Resources in the Northern Highland American Legion State Forest in Wisconsin. Principal Investigator: Carl Watras. Grant: $53,618

For information about our proposal process, go to: Grant Process FAQ's NEW RESEARCH REPORTS PUBLISHED
The program received the final reports for three new projects, completed in the summer and fall of 2006. We're happy to announce their publication on the program web site at Completed Projects. This web page also includes all Environmental Research Program reports published so far. Bioenergy in Wisconsin: The Potential Supplyof Forest Biomass and Its Relationship to Biodiversity
Principal Investigators: Cassandra J. Willyard and Susan M. Tikalsky
Resource Strategies, Inc., Madison, Wisconsin
Email: tikalsky@rs-inc.com

Wisconsin's forests, one of state's most valuable natural resources, could serve as an abundant source of renewable energy for generating electricity. As fossil fuel prices escalate, biomass-derived energy is an increasingly attractive option because it is both sustainable and home-grown. However, growing demand for forest resources has raised concerns that heavy use of wood biomass will begin depleting the habitat required by the many other living species in the state's forests. Sustainable forestry practices hold a promise to meet the state's biomass needs, while protecting the forest environment, especially biodiversity.

This project reviews the current state of the science on sustainable forestry as it relates to biomass production and its impact on biodiversity in Wisconsin. The report also explores the policy implications of implementing sustainable forestry for biomass production. This information will be of interest to utilities, landowners, environmental interest groups, regulators, and any of a growing group of forest product industry interests witnessing increased competition for forest resources. Reduction in Mercury Loading: Timing and Magnitude of an Ecosystem Response
Principal Investigators: James P. Hurley, Christopher L. Babiarz, Shawn Chadwick
Environmental Chemistry and Technology Program
University of Wisconsin-Madison

Atmospheric transport, deposition, and reemission of Mercury (Hg) are key processes of its movement through our environment. Historically, it has been difficult to understand these processes because of our inability to differentiate between mercury that has been recently deposited from human generated (or anthropogenic) sources and mercury occurring naturally in place. In the Mercury Experiment to Assess Atmospheric Loading In Canada and the United States (METAALICUS), stable isotopes of Hg were applied to both the lake and watershed as a tool for identifying key processes that control the environmental fate of Hg. These isotopic techniques have provided the first direct evidence of a whole lake and whole watershed response to "new" atmospheric inputs of Hg. The study takes place at the Canadian Experimental Lakes Area (ELA), located just north of the Minnesota-Ontario border.

Two of the major goals of the project are to determine the fate and transport of the new Hg through the watershed (for example, how quickly the added Hg is transformed and bioaccumulated in fish), and to assess the watershed recovery time due to reductions in atmospheric Hg deposition. The specific goal of the work funded through the Environmental Research Program of Wisconsin Focus on Energy is to determine the timing and magnitude of the in-lake response. In particular, our work measures: (a) the speciation (chemical form), (b) partitioning (physical location), and (c) mobility (transport, transformation and bioaccumulation) of Hg within the lake - with special emphasis on the role of the sediment water interface as a removal mechanism for Hg. Carbon and Greenhouse Gas Budgets for Wisconsin Forests and Forest Product Chains
Principal Investigators: Stith T. Gower and Douglas A. Ahl
Department of Forest Ecology and Management
University of Wisconsin-Madison

Carbon sequestration has the potential to assist in alleviating the rising levels of CO2 in the earth's atmosphere. Plants, trees and other vegetation can absorb and store excess carbon. In order to use this strategy, however, we need to know more about existing carbon levels in forested areas. This project simulates forest carbon budgets using a modified version of the ecosystem process model, BGC. The team incorporates cutting-edge forest ecosystem net CO2 exchange responses from results obtained by the Free Air CO2 Exchange (FACE) and forest ecosystem warming studies.

The study has a number of objectives. First, it quantifies the carbon content in forest vegetation, detritus, and mineral soil for forests in Wisconsin. It then models and evaluates the carbon budgets for three model forests, and conducts life cycle analyses of forest product chains to identify management and industrial processes that can be modified to mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and/or increase carbon sequestration. Finally, it expands previous analyses to include all forests in Wisconsin, and incorporates ecophysiological elevated CO2 and warming mechanisms into an ecosystem process model and simulate forest C budgets and forest product chains for future environmental conditions. PROJECTS IN PROGRESS:
Changes in Biodiversity in Selected Natural Communities Related to Global Climate Change
Principal Investigator: Craig Anderson, Program Botanist
Natural Heritage Inventory Bureau of Endangered Resources
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, Madison, Wisconsin
Craig.Anderson@dnr.state.wi.us

We can assess the impacts of global climate change in Wisconsin by conducting baseline inventories in a set of natural communities that are most likely to be affected as a result of climate change. This set of communities can then be monitored over time to see if impacts related to climate change are occurring. The goal of this project is to collect baseline data on the distribution of rare vascular plants and invertebrates, small mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians in peatland natural communities in Wisconsin. In part, intensive surveys will provide a volume of data and repetition over time. Extensive surveys will help determine if observed relationships are consistent among Ecological Landscapes across the state. The results will serve as a baseline to compare with future surveys and identify potential changes in species distributions, abundance, and phenology resulting from climate change. Our efforts to date have focused on selecting and evaluating potential study sites, contacting landowners for permission to survey their property, collecting, entering, and beginning to analyze data, and evaluating and refining survey techniques.

Modeling the Effects of Forest Management Decisions on Carbon Sequestration
Principal Investigator: Stith T. Gower, Professor
Department of Forest Ecology and Management
University of Wisconsin-Madison
stgower@wisc.edu

Dr. Gower was the recipient of a program grant for his project "Carbon and Greenhouse Gas Budgets for Wisconsin Forests and its Forest Product Chains" that consisted of empirical analysis of greenhouse gas (GHG) life cycle inventories for several important wood products in Wisconsin (White et al. 2005) and the development of a coupled biological and industrial C cycle model that will be used to quantify the GHG emissions for Wisconsin's forests and associated wood and paper products (Ahl et al. 2005).

This second program grant will be used to pursue several management issues that emerged from the initial study. The following questions will be addressed specifically: (1) What effects does forest rotation length and harvest intensity have on net C sequestration and (2) should the goal of forest C management be maximum C storage or C sequestration? We will use the coupled biological - industrial forest C cycle model developed to simulate different forests management scenarios for major forest types in Wisconsin and explore the long-term implications of C management objectives of maximizing C storage versus maximizing C sequestration. The results will have direct implications for forest managers and policy makers in Wisconsin.

Projecting Impacts of Greenhouse Gases on Carbon Sequestration by Wisconsin Forests
Principal Investigator: Eric Kruger, Associate Professor
Department of Forest Ecology and Management
University of Wisconsin-Madison
elkruger@facstaff.wisc.edu

Wisconsin's forests harbor the potential to sequester, or store, considerable amounts of the carbon emitted (as carbon dioxide) through fossil fuel combustion, thereby helping to mitigate the effects of these emissions on atmospheric chemistry and global climate. In turn, Wisconsin's forests are quite sensitive to levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide and other trace gases, such as ozone, which are increasing rapidly. The Aspen Free-Air CO2 and O3 Enrichment Study (Aspen FACE) is uniquely situated to study this complex topic in Wisconsin. This project utilizes data from Aspen FACE, along with air quality data from the WDNR Air Management Program, to model and project impacts of elevated levels of CO2 and O3 on carbon sequestration by Wisconsin forests during the next century.

Mercury Chemistry in Power Plant Plumes
Principal Investigator: Leonard Levin, Ph.D.
Electric Power Research Institute, Palo Alto, California
llevin@epri.com

Recent field and pilot-scale results indicate that divalent mercury emitted from power plants may rapidly transform to elemental mercury within the power plant plumes. To establish the presence, direction, and rate of these reactions, it is necessary to measure power plant plumes relatively close to the stack exit, and compare mercury composition there with measured composition within the stack. This project seeks to establish whether significant reduction or oxidation reactions occur to mercury emitted from coal-fired power plants, and what numerical redox rate should apply for extension to other sources and for modeling of power plant mercury plumes locally, regionally, and nationally.

Assessing the Ecological Risk of Mercury Exposure to Common Loons
Project Manager: Michael W. Meyer
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
Bureau of Integrated Science Services, Rhinelander, WI
Study Director: Kevin P. Kenow
U.S. Geological Survey
Upper Midwest Environmental Science Center (UMESC), La Crosse, WI
Michael.Meyer@dnr.state.wi

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, U.S. Geological Survey, and the University of Wisconsin collaborated on a research project designed to generate a scientifically defensible wildlife/mercury risk assessment model. The model focused on the common loon, a species at risk to mercury exposure in Wisconsin. The model is needed to produce regulatory endpoints that will safeguard wildlife from the toxic effects of excess mercury exposure. The project was successful in 1) developing a model that describes the kinetics of mercury absorption and elimination in growing common loon chicks and 2) in assessing the impacts of mercury exposure on loon chick growth, survival, behavior, and physiology.

Additional work is now being conducted to validate predictions of the toxicokinetic model, establish an accurate relationship between mercury intake and blood mercury exposure, collect additional tissue partitioning data, and gather supplemental information concerning the effect of mercury exposure on the immune function and physiology of loon chicks. A chronic dosing study is being conducted using captive-reared loon chicks that are given measured doses of methyl mercury in their diet. This information will be used to develop an empirical relationship between loon chick mercury exposure and prey mercury content, assess the protective benefits of mercury sequestration in growing feathers, and refine our estimates of a LOAEL for mercury risk assessment. The results of this work will be used to establish the level of mercury in fish that safeguards survival and health of loon chicks reared on lakes in Wisconsin.

Mercury in Selected Fish Species over Time
Principal Investigator: Candy Schrank
Fisheries Management and Habitat Protection
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, Madison, Wisconsin
Candy.Schrank@dnr.state.wi.us

This two-year project includes developing and implementing a monitoring design to assess changes in mercury concentrations in selected fish species over time. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has been monitoring mercury in fish since the early 1970s. The focus of that monitoring has changed over time, first focusing on water bodies receiving wastewater containing mercury, then lakes, and now on waters suspected of containing fish with higher concentrations of mercury for fish advisories purposes. Existing walleye mercury data show that mercury concentrations increase with walleye length but the relationship between mercury and length varies among lakes. Characteristics suspected to affect mercury accumulation include water chemistry, fish growth rates, and atmospheric loading.

The goal of the design will be to determine mercury in walleye and young yellow perch from two sets of lakes for a total of 50 lakes every 5 years. One set of lakes will be seepage lakes to reduce variability due to loading/discharge rates and more directly reflect atmospheric loading. The second set will be historical lakes with walleye mercury data from the 1970-1990 time period to build upon existing data sets and achieve a longer record of data and evaluate lake factors affecting sensitivity to mercury accumulation.

Analysis of the resulting data will be conducted to describe the relationship between mercury and length of fish and age, changes in mercury concentration over time, and mean predicted mercury for a fish of a given size. The adequacy of this design to detect trends in a 10 to 20 year time frame will also be assessed. ONGOING ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING PROJECTS
Two monitoring projects provide ongoing data as part of national networks:

Wisconsin NADP National Trends Network (NTN)
Principl Investigator: Bruce Rodger
Air Monitoring Field Operations
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, Madison, Wisconsin
Bruce.Rodger@dnr.state.wi.us

Since 1980 Wisconsin has participated in a national program collecting precipitation samples for chemical analysis. This network is called the National Trends Network (NTN) and was established by the National Atmospheric Deposition Program (NADP) to measure atmospheric deposition and study its effects on the environment. Wisconsin DNR presently operates a network of seven (7) NTN stations throughout Wisconsin. Historical levels of pollutants in the atmosphere provide important clues as to what is happening to the chemistry of Wisconsin's precipitation today. Scientists and policy makers use the data provided by the NTN to examine the effectiveness of air quality regulations, determine whether changes in land use are affecting atmospheric conditions and answer other questions regarding atmospheric deposition.

Long-term changes in the atmosphere occur very slowly, obscured by wide month-to-month variability in chemistry measurements. In order to see beyond the short-term changes, it is necessary to analyze the precipitation chemistry of NTN sites over many years. Key support for analysis of trends and patterns is provided by data from the NADP National Trends Network (NTN). NTN data indicate that atmospheric deposition has improved in positive ways as intended by the Clean Air Act Amendments (CAAA) of 1990. The length and continuity of record in NADP - NTN measurements is essential for future assessments of Clean Air Act related policy. The NADP - NTN data record is fundamental to the process of providing answers to ecological science questions.

Wisconsin Mercury Deposition Network (MDN)
Principal Investigator: Bruce Rodger
Air Monitoring Field Operations
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, Madison, Wisconsin
Bruce.Rodger@dnr.state.wi.us

All of Wisconsin's lakes fall under a fish consumption advisory for mercury. Research has shown that the majority of mercury in Wisconsin's lakes and streams comes from atmospheric deposition via wet precipitation.

In 1995 the National Atmospheric Deposition Program (NADP) established a secondary network of deposition monitoring stations, the Mercury Deposition Network (MDN), to measure the deposition of mercury throughout a network of stations in North America. Wisconsin participated in the establishment of this network from its beginning in 1995. Presently Wisconsin DNR operates six (6) MDN stations in Wisconsin. There are now over 98 active sites in the MDN network including stations across the U. S., Canada and two (2) sites in Mexico. New additional MDN sites are pending as this network continues to grow. The scope of the MDN network is rapidly increasing to fill the void of monitoring sites between the Mississippi River and the West Coast. The MDN provides a long-term, widespread monitoring network allowing researchers and policymakers to answer essential questions about the health and future of our environment with respect to mercury deposition to Wisconsin's and the nation's water resources. The MDN will characterize the extent of the mercury problem, describe regional patterns of mercury deposition, and assess deposition changes over time. The MDN data will be especially useful to ground truth mercury modeling efforts to predict mercury deposition as controls are added to mercury sources to reduce emissions. Event sampling (event sites) and single-event weeks (weekly sites) data will be used to support receptor modeling and back trajectory analysis. The MDN is a long-term monitoring program. Data acquired through uninterrupted long-term operation of this network will enable the examination of local and regional scale problems and the evaluation of control efficacy. MDN data will be critical to establish and verify relationships between emissions and effects to sensitive receptors of mercury contamination.