Long Term Resource Monitoring
Associated with the Long Term Resource Monitoring Program (LTRMP)
Authorized by the Water Resources Development Acts of 1986 and 1999 (Public Law 99-662) as an element of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Environmental Management Program, the mission of the LTRMP is to provide river managers with information needed to maintain the Upper Mississippi River System as a viable multiple-use ecosystem. The LTRMP is administered by the USGS Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center in La Crosse, WI.
Over 25 years of monitoring data
Great Rivers Field Station researchers have monitored water quality, fish, macroinvertebrates, and aquatic vegetation communities for over 25 years along a 50-mile stretch of the Mississippi and Illinois rivers above Melvin Price Lock and Dam 26.
GRFS staff have conducted ground-breaking research on bigheaded carp and zebra mussels in the Mississippi and Illinois river.
Researchers work with endangered species such as the Illinois chorus frog.
Floodplain Forest Dynamics
Past studies have documented pre- and post-settlement distribution of floodplain forests, and how floods affect seedling survival, seed dispersal, and forest community composition.
From 2015 to 2019, the Great Rivers Field Station collaborated with Dr. Carol Colaninno from the Southern Illinois University Edwardsville STEM Center on two NSF Research Experience for Undergraduate Students programs. These programs were interdisciplinary and students would receive training in both aquatic ecology and archaeology. The common focus between the two disciplines was comparing Upper Mississippi River fish communities represented in archaeological remains from 1000’s of years in the past with modern monitoring data.