Amina Pollard

Amina Pollard is an American limnologist and ecologist at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).[1]

Amina Pollard
Alma materLawrence University Bachelors of Arts (1995)
Wright State University Masters of Science (1997)
University of Wisconsin-Madison PhD (2002)
Known forLimnology
Scientific career
InstitutionsUnited States Environmental Protection Agency

Pollard leads the U.S. EPA National Lakes Assessment, which seeks to provide information on the health of lakes, ponds, and reservoirs across the United States.[2][3][4] She currently serves on the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO) board of directors (2018-2021),[5] chairs ASLO's annual awards committee,[6] and is a scientific advisor to Canada's Lake Pulse research program.[7]

Education and early career

Pollard received her BA from Lawrence University in 1995 and a Master's degree from Wright State University in 1997.[8] In 2002, she received her PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Center for Limnology under the supervision of John Magnuson and Thomas Frost.[9] Pollard studied how the structure and connectedness of streams and lakes affects invertebrate communities within those systems. She also measured the consequences of dam removal on stream benthic invertebrate communities.[10]

After graduating from the University of Wisconsin, Pollard starting working for the EPA as a postdoctoral fellow and has remained at the EPA her entire career.[11]

Career

At the EPA, Pollard leads the National Lakes Assessment (NLA), a standardized and coordinated effort to sample lakes in the U.S.[1][2] The NLA provides publicly available colocated biological, chemical, habitat, and human use metrics for representative lakes every 5 years starting in 2007. Comparing the 2007 and 2012 NLA sampling efforts allowed Pollard and her colleagues to determine that the proportion of "blue" lakes was declining while the proportion of "murky" lakes was increasing in the continental U.S.[3][12][13] The increase in murky lakes - an indicator of poor water quality - was due to the combined effect of increased eutrophication and dissolved organic carbon inputs from the terrestrial environment. Pollard and colleagues also determined that the murky lakes were less efficient at transferring energy up the food web (to zooplankton, for example), despite having the highest rates of primary production. The murky lakes also had the highest concentration of microcystin, which are a class of toxins produced by cyanobacteria and are potentially toxic to human health in high enough concentrations. Pollard has also shown that combining national-scale datasets, such as the NLA, with local-scale data improves prediction accuracy of microcystin concentrations at the local level.[14]

Research by Pollard and colleagues has advanced our understanding of how environmental change and the structure of landscapes influence freshwater communities and ecosystems. Pollard led and contributed to work characterizing how the connections between streams, lakes, and wetlands within landscape mosaics control the movement and community structure of freshwater organisms.[9][15] [16] In a study exploring changing nutrient concentrations in freshwaters, Pollard and colleagues noted that both lakes and streams were increasing in total phosphorus (TP) concentration in the continental U.S., another indicator of eutrophication, and the most notable increases were in relatively pristine catchments.[17]

Pollard also contributed to the U.S. EPA's Causal Analysis/Diagnosis Decision Information System (CADDIS) sections on analytical examples and data analysis.[18] CADDIS represents an ongoing effort to assist scientists, managers, and engineers conduct data-informed causal assessments to identify sources of impairment to aquatic organisms.[19]

In 2018, Pollard became the first African-American woman plenary speaker at the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography annual meeting.[11][20][21]

Awards

In 2018, Pollard and the EPA NLA Team were nominated by Lisa Borre on behalf of the NALMS Government Affairs Committee for the Friends of North American Lake Management Society Award.[22] Pollard and her team won the award for their coordinated effort with the EPA, states, tribes, federal agencies, and other organizations to implement the National Lakes Assessment (NLA), a large-scale statistical survey of the condition of our nation’s lakes, ponds, and reservoirs.[27]

References
  1. Pollard, Amina I.; Hampton, Stephanie E.; Leech, Dina M. (2018). "The Promise and Potential of Continental-Scale Limnology Using the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's National Lakes Assessment". Limnology and Oceanography Bulletin. 27 (2): 36–41. doi:10.1002/lob.10238. ISSN 1539-6088.
  2. US EPA, OW (2015-04-13). "National Lakes Assessment". US EPA. Retrieved 2019-05-02.
  3. "Murky lakes now surpass clear, blue lakes in US". ScienceDaily. Retrieved 2019-05-07.
  4. University, Longwood. "Longwood ecologist, Dina Leech finds that lakes across the U.S. are getting murkier". www.longwood.edu. Retrieved 2019-05-07.
  5. "ASLO : Board of Directors". www.aslo.org. Retrieved 2019-05-07.
  6. Wickland, Kimberly P.; Pollard, Amina I. (2019). "The ASLO Awards Program Primer: How it Works, Historical Trends, and How You Can Get Involved". Limnology and Oceanography Bulletin. 28 (2): 70–74. doi:10.1002/lob.10306. ISSN 1539-6088.
  7. "Researchers". NSERC Canadian Lake Pulse Network. 2017-01-11. Retrieved 2019-05-07.
  8. "North American Lake Management Society (NALMS)". North American Lake Management Society (NALMS). Retrieved 2019-05-07.
  9. Pollard, Amina I. (2002). "Patterns of Invertebrate Distribution in Connected Lentic and Lotic Ecosystems". University of Wisconsin-Madison.
  10. Pollard, Amina I.; Reed, Tara (2004). "Benthic invertebrate assemblage change following dam removal in a Wisconsin stream". Hydrobiologia. 513 (1): 51–58. doi:10.1023/b:hydr.0000018164.17234.4f. ISSN 0018-8158. S2CID 41946412.
  11. ASLO (2018-10-23), 2018 ASLO Summer Meeting - Tiara Moore introduces Amina Pollard, retrieved 2019-05-02
  12. Leech, Dina M.; Pollard, Amina I.; Labou, Stephanie G.; Hampton, Stephanie E. (2018). "Fewer blue lakes and more murky lakes across the continental U.S.: Implications for planktonic food webs". Limnology and Oceanography. 63 (6): 2661–2680. Bibcode:2018LimOc..63.2661L. doi:10.1002/lno.10967. ISSN 1939-5590. PMC 6961962. PMID 31942083.
  13. Giaimo, Cara (2018-08-30). "The Murky Future of America's Lakes". Atlas Obscura. Retrieved 2019-08-23.
  14. Yuan, Lester L.; Pollard, Amina I. (2019-04-01). "Combining national and state data improves predictions of microcystin concentration". Harmful Algae. 84: 75–83. doi:10.1016/j.hal.2019.02.009. ISSN 1568-9883. PMC 7147962. PMID 31128815.
  15. Kratz, Timothy; University Of Wisconsin; Pollard, Amina; NTL LTER (2013). "Data Portal - Data Package Summary | Environmental Data Initiative (EDI)". Environmental Data Initiative. doi:10.6073/pasta/908630afffa393cef9a5a21d35485d27. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  16. Mushet, David M.; Alexander, Laurie C.; Bennett, Micah; Schofield, Kate; Christensen, Jay R.; Ali, Genevieve; Pollard, Amina; Fritz, Ken; Lang, Megan W. (2019). "Differing Modes of Biotic Connectivity within Freshwater Ecosystem Mosaics". JAWRA Journal of the American Water Resources Association. 55 (2): 307–317. doi:10.1111/1752-1688.12683. ISSN 1752-1688. PMC 6876646. PMID 31787838.
  17. Stoddard, John L.; Van Sickle, John; Herlihy, Alan T.; Brahney, Janice; Paulsen, Steven; Peck, David V.; Mitchell, Richard; Pollard, Amina I. (2016-04-05). "Continental-Scale Increase in Lake and Stream Phosphorus: Are Oligotrophic Systems Disappearing in the United States?". Environmental Science & Technology. 50 (7): 3409–3415. Bibcode:2016EnST...50.3409S. doi:10.1021/acs.est.5b05950. ISSN 0013-936X. PMID 26914108.
  18. US EPA, ORD (2015-04-03). "Authors and Contributors to CADDIS". US EPA. Retrieved 2020-06-10.
  19. United States. Environmental Protection Agency. Office of Research and Development. (2017). "Causal Analysis/Diagnosis Decision Information System (CADDIS)". CADDIS. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development.
  20. Moore, Tiara (2018). "The Only Black Person in the Room". Limnology and Oceanography Bulletin. 27 (4): 114–115. doi:10.1002/lob.10269. ISSN 1539-6088.
  21. ASLO (2018-09-08), 2018 ASLO Plenary: Amina Pollard on the US National Lakes Assessment, retrieved 2019-05-02
  22. "North American Lake Management Society (NALMS)". North American Lake Management Society (NALMS). Retrieved 2019-05-07.
  23. "Embassy Science Fellows Program". www.state.gov. Retrieved 2019-05-07.
  24. agus2. "Seminar titled "Management of Water Quality in the USA: An Overview of Framework, Challenges and Successes."". www.saras-institute.org. Retrieved 2019-05-07.
  25. "Hacia un Sistema Nacional de monitoreo". www.mvotma.gub.uy. Retrieved 2019-05-07.
  26. US EPA, ORD (2015-09-29). "Scientific and Technological Achievement Award (STAA)". US EPA. Retrieved 2019-05-02.
  27. US EPA, OW (2015-04-13). "National Lakes Assessment". US EPA. Retrieved 2020-08-16.
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