Date of Award

Summer 2025

Language

English

Embargo Period

7-13-2027

Document Type

Master's Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

College/School/Department

Department of Geography, Planning, and Sustainability

Program

Biodiversity, Conservation & Policy

First Advisor

Andrei Lapenas

Committee Members

Andrei Lapenas, Steven Pearson, Jeff Zappieri

Keywords

Floristic Quality Assessment, Copper Pesticides, Aquatic Plants, Biodiversity, Algaecides and Herbicides, Ecosystem Health

Subject Categories

Environmental Health and Protection | Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment | Environmental Monitoring | Natural Resources and Conservation | Natural Resources Management and Policy

Abstract

This study evaluated the use of the Floristic Quality Assessment (FQA) Method in assessing the impacts of copper-based pesticide treatment on lakes within the Hudson River Watershed of New York State (NYS). FQA is a vegetation-based ecological assessment method accounting for native and total species richness using Coefficients of Conservatism (C values) indicative of a plant species reliance on higher quality habitat and ecosystem processes, and overall tolerance to degradation. Greater FQA values correlate with higher quality vegetative communities and an associated increase in ecosystem health. Results derived from the FQA Method were used to analyze the health of 19 freshwater lakes distributed across two study groups (8 lakes with a history of copper-based pesticide treatment and 11 lakes with no historical record of treatment) and subsequently determine the viability of the FQA Method in assessing habitat degradation through comparison with results from a related study comparing copper concentrations in littoral sediment of lakes with and without a history of copper-based pesticide treatment. Past studies using the FQA Method have been limited to the state-level however this study also utilized ecoregional C values, thus the difference in results associated with a variation in C values between datasets was also investigated. Greater FQA values for both the NYS and Ecoregion dataset generally correlated with lower copper concentrations in littoral sediment of lakes, suggesting that the FQA Method is a viable indicator of habitat degradation and useful assessment tool for lake management. Furthermore, lakes treated with copper-based pesticides generally had lower FQA values in comparison to lakes with no record of treatment. No statistically significant (p value ≤ 0.05) difference in results between datasets was observed however Native Mean C (p value = 0.10) neared significance and was determined to be the metric most sensitive to ecological change.

License

This work is licensed under the University at Albany Standard Author Agreement.

Download

Available for download on Tuesday, July 13, 2027

Share

COinS