Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies
Tuesday, October 8, 2024; 8 am to 5:30 pm
State of Hudson River Ecosystem Monitoring
Registration: 8 am. – Talks start at 9 a.m. – Poster session: 4 pm. To register, visit eventbrite.com
With the closing of the Indian Point nuclear power plant, one of the longest uninterrupted monitoring programs in the world came to an end. A complimentary monitoring survey of the lower food web conducted by the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies ended in 2020. Together, these surveys provided critical information about different fish habitats, species, life stages, food sources, and environmental conditions of the Hudson River. Fortunately, several key fisheries monitoring programs have been maintained by the NYSDEC and a new three-year survey of the Hudson River’s lower food web will commence in 2025. During this one-day symposium, we will look at the biological monitoring of the past, review current ecosystem monitoring activities, hear about new and innovative ways to monitor biological systems, and learn about efforts to design the next generation comprehensive ecosystem monitoring program of the Hudson River.
Schedule
8:00 am
Registration
9:00 am
Welcome to the Symposium:
- Joshua Ginsberg, President Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies
- James Morrison, President Hudson River Environmental Society
- Jonathan Kramer, President and CEO Hudson River Foundation
Historical Hudson River Ecosystem Monitoring Program
9:15–10:00 am
Monitoring the Hudson River Ecosystem: Insights from Past Programs
David Strayer, Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies
10:00–10:30 am
Historic Hudson River Biological Monitoring Program: The Archived Samples and Data
Yong Chen, School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, SUNY at Stony Brook
10:30–11:00 am
Break
Ecosystem Monitoring Today
11:00–11:20 am
Hudson River Fisheries Surveys and Research
Rich Pendleton, NYS Department of Environmental Conservation, Department of Natural Resources and the Environment, Cornell University
11:20–11:40 am
River-wide Acoustic Array: Monitoring Fish Movement in the Hudson River
Amanda Higgs, NYS Department of Environmental Conservation, Department of Natural Resources and the Environment, Cornell University
11:40 am–12:00 pm
Monitoring the Resilience of Aquatic Habitats
Sarah Fernald, Hudson River National Estuarine Research Reserve, NYS Department of Environmental Conservation
12:00–12:20 pm
Real-time Abiotic Monitoring Supporting the Biotic
Brittney Flaten, HRECOS Coordinator, NEIWPCC, NYS Department of Environmental Conservation
12:30–1:30 pm
Lunch
Looking to the Future
1:30–1:55 pm
The 2025–2027 Interim Lower Food Web Monitoring Program
Chris Solomon, Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies
2:00–2:25 pm
Biological monitoring with environmental DNA (eDNA)
David M. Lodge, Francis J. DiSalvo Director, Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability
2:30–2:55 pm
Sounding the Hudson: Applications of Bioacoustics for Ecosystem Monitoring in the Hudson River
Rebecca Cohen, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Cornell University
3:00–3:25 pm
Hudson River Water Quality Monitoring Collaborative and Data Portal
Shannon Roback, Hudson Riverkeeper
3:30–4:00 pm
Making Sense of it All – Panel Summary and Discussion
- Stuart Findlay, Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies
- Jonathan Kramer, Hudson River Foundation
- Martin Gary, Division Director Marine Resources, NYS Department of Environmental Conservation