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Ecological aspects of the National Water-Quality Assessment Program

Open-File Report 89-409
By M.E. Gurtz

Abstract

Examination of aquatic communities and their associated habitats as part of a water-quality assessment provides a level of interpretation that integrates physical, chemical, and biological water-quality parameters. The U.S. Geological Survey is presently developing plans for conducting ecological surveys as part of the National Water-Quality Assessment Program (NAWQA).

Ecological surveys will be conducted in two stages in each NAWQA basin, at sites ranging from mainstem stations to low-order tributaries, including reference sites having minimal human influences. Stage I is a reconnaissance-type synoptic survey of approximately 30 to 50 sites conducted once at the beginning of the 3-year NAWQA study, with the emphasis on qualitative sampling of invertebrate communities. The purposes of Stage I are to obtain a broad spatial description of biological communities and habitat characteristics throughout the basin and to evaluate and compare candidate sites for Stage II sampling.

Stage II is designed as a repeated synoptic survey (4 times during a 3-year NAWQA study) and will involve more intensive sampling of biological communities (fish, invertebrates, and algae) at fewer sites (15 to 20). Ecological surveys will be coordinated with other biological activities, such as sampling of biological tissues, as well as with activities of other resource agencies and researchers. The approach and methods for an ecological survey are being tested in two pilot study basins: the Yakima River in Washington and the upper Illinois River in Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin.

Gurtz, M.E., 1989, Ecological aspects of the National Water-Quality Assessment Program, in Pederson, G.L. and Smith, M.M., comps., 1989, U.S. Geological Survey second national symposium on water quality: Abstracts of the technical sessions, Orlando, Fla., Nov. 12-17, 1989: U.S. Geological Survey Survey Open-File Report 89-409, p. 33.