Center for Water
and the Environment
Lucinda Johnson, Ph.D., Center Director and Senior Research Associate
Position and Focus
Areas of interest include bioindicators, amphibians and watersheds. Research projects include: effects of multiple stressors on aquatic communities; testing indicators of coastal ecosystem integrity using fish and macroinvertebrates; protocols for selecting classification systems and reference conditions: a comparison of methods.
Background
Ph.D., Zoology, Michigan State University, 1999
M.S., Environmental Science and Forestry, State University of New York, 1984
B.A., Duke University, 1976
Current Publications
- Lucinda Johnson CV
curriculum vitae
Project list for Lucinda Johnson :
(A link will go to the project's current report, an arrow will take you to a project's home page)
Managing the Nations Fish Habitat at Multiple Spatial Scales
Objective 1: To refine empirical and mechanistic models for predicting extent of cold water fish habitat under current land use and climate regimes. Predict oxythermal habitat for coldwater fish species using an empirical model incorporating existing land use, lake morphometry, and climate data. Test single lake mechanistic model (Stefan and Fang, ongoing) predicting temperature and hypolimnetic oxygen concentrations using historic physical, water quality, and cisco abundance data for a subset of Minnesota’s stratified lakes. Refine model to accommodate predictions of additional cold water fish species habitat, beyond cisco. Objective 2: Predict future extents of cold water fish habitat in lakes of the Glacial Lakes region under future climate and land use scenarios. Develop predictions of the potential to retain oxythermal habitat in lakes under changing land use for distinct lake classes and/or geographic regions using an empirical model. Develop predictions of the potential to retain oxythermal habitat in individual lakes under changing land use for distinct lake classes and/or geographic regions using a mechanistic model.
Great Lakes Coastal Wetland Monitoring
To assess the biotic condition of all the major coastal wetlands of the Great Lakes, U.S. and Canadian shorelines.
GLEI II - Indicator Testing and Refinement
The GLEI-II project will focus on wetland near shore conditions of the Great Lakes, and consist of five tasks: 1) Refine coastal ecosystem indicators from previous monitoring programs through calibration against updated landscape/land use information within the entire Great Lakes basin, 2) test the temporal and geographic integrity of existing Great Lakes indicators. Determine scores for a suite of metrics from sites not sampled previously, and test the applicability of metrics across the entire Great Lakes basin, including Canada, 3) test and compare analytical techniques to cross-calibrate indicators from concurrent monitoring programs, 4) evaluate indicators for cost-effectiveness, 5) implement a data collection, analysis, and reporting system for recommended indicators. Implement a web-based reporting system that integrates landscape/land use information systems, and 6) Create a map of baseline conditions for the Great Lakes basin based on historical and current monitoring information.
Ecological Design for the St. Louis River Area of Concern
To develop an ecological design for restoring the Fish and Wildlife Service 40th Avenue West project area.
Indicators of Agricultural Stressors in Coastal Waters of the Great Lakes
Landscape Metrics for Coastal Wetland Integrity Indices
To test existing landscape indicators of coastal marsh integrity that can be incorporated into a coastal wetland monitoring program. Using the same set of coastal marshes selected for the USGS project we will: 1) Evaluate the ability of individual landscape indicators to discriminate between reference, disturbed, and managed sites. 2) Analyze redundancy among landscape indicators and between landscape and site specific indicators. Because funds for monitoring are often tight, it is advantageous to maximize the amount of information relative sampling costs in a monitoring program. For example, it would not be wise to monitor more than one variable that conveyed the same information. Thus, one part of developing a multi-metric assessment is to evaluate redundancy among indicators. If there are indicators that are highly redundant, then the variable that is more expensive to monitor or is less useful may be eliminated from consideration.
The North Shore Data Consortium: Acquiring and Distributing High-Resolution Geospatial Information
To create the North Shore Data Consortium - a group of local and regional government and industry officials with the goal of collaborating on the collection and use of high-resolution spatial data, including LiDAR.
Impacts of Land Development and Climate Change on Lake Superior`s North Shore Trout Habitat
1) Characterize the current hydrology of North Shore streams, including precipitation and streamflow trends, water budgets, and the relative importance of different baseflow sources. 2) Characterize current stream temperature regimes in North Shore streams using a combination of deterministic models for select study sites and empirical models for broader spatial coverage. 3) Forecast future streamflow and temperature regimes in North Shore streams based on expected changes in land use and in climate. Short term forecasts can be made based on current trends, and long term forecasts can be made based on available climate and land use change data.