Evaluating Beneficial Use Impairments in wetlands of the Massena Area of Concern using biotic, water quality, and landscape indicators

Wetlands along the St. Lawrence River were severely impacted by habitat alteration and contamination as a consequence of construction of the St. Lawrence Seaway and the Moses-Saunders power dam, and associated industrial development. Due to environmental degradation, the St. Lawrence River at Massena, New York has been designated as an Area of Concern (AOC) in the Laurentian Great Lakes. Within this AOC, there is an information gap on the current status of two Beneficial Use Impairments (BUIs): (1) loss of fish and wildlife habitat and (2) degradation of fish and wildlife populations. Both BUIs have the same evaluation endpoint: no difference between the AOC and comparable reference areas outside of the AOC. We evaluated coastal and palustrine wetlands by surveying biological, water quality, and landscape indicators within a sample of 17 wetlands in the AOC and 10 reference wetlands outside the AOC to establish georeferenced indices of biotic integrity and water quality. We did not detect a difference between the AOC and reference wetlands in any of the 14 biotic and 16 water quality metrics, but did find a difference in landscape setting. AOC wetlands were smaller and fewer, especially for woody wetlands. These results suggest that wildlife habitat quality and communities are not impaired in AOC wetlands yet it would be beneficial for additional key fish and wildlife assemblages and habitat types to be surveyed, multi-year monitoring of key biotic indicators implemented, and more specific redesignation criteria for wetland habitat and matrix landscape composition defined and met.