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Design considerations for biological aspects of the National Water-Quality Assessment program (NAWQA)

Project Abstract
By M.E. Gurtz

Abstract

Design of the biological aspects of a large-scale and long-term water-quality assessment program requires special consideration of program objectives and spatial and temporal scales, advantages of alternative biological parameters, strategies for selecting sites and sampling methods, and needs for ancillary data. The National Water-Quality Assessment Program (NAWQA) of the U.S. Geological Survey is designed to describe the status and trends in the quality of the Nation's surface- and ground-water resources and to provide a sound understanding of the natural and human factors that affect the quality of these resources. To meet its goals, the program will integrate physical, chemical, and biological information about water quality at different spatial scales-local, study unit, and regional and national-and will focus on water-quality conditions that affect large areas or are recurrent on the local scale. Study-unit investigations will be conducted in 60 areas throughout the Nation to provide a framework for national and regional water-quality assessments.

Ecological surveys will include the examination of aquatic communities (fish, invertebrates, and algae), coupled with analysis of biological tissues for trace elements and synthetic organic compounds. Study sites and sampling reaches for ecological and tissue analyses will be selected following reconnaissance sampling and habitat surveys. Categories of sites will include: (1) reference sites (minimally affected low- and mid-order streams in each ecological region within a basin, (2) sites affected by selected land-use activities (paired, if possible, with physically similar reference sites), (3) sites chosen to provide support information for other sampling activities (for example, NAWQA fixed stations), and (4) mainstem or major tributary sites selected to provide desired spatial resolution. Pilot studies are being conducted to evaluate approaches to site selection sampling methods, and data analysis; study sites include the Yakima River basin in Washington and the upper Illinois River basin in Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin.