Biological-Community Composition in Small Streams and its Relations to Habitat, Nutrients, and Land Use in Agriculturally Dominated Landscapes in Indiana and Ohio, 2004, and Implications for Assessing Nutrient Conditions in Midwest Streams

摘要

The current study was one of eight regional studies that assessed the effects of nutrient enrichment in streams as part of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program (Munn and Hamilton, 2003). The analysis in this report relates algal-, invertebrate-, and fish-community composition to habitat, nutrients, and land-use variables along a previously determined nutrient-concentration gradient. The study was conducted in 30 agriculturally dominated watersheds within the USEPA Level III Eastern Corn Belt Plains (Ecoregion 55) part of the White River and Great and Little Miami River Basins (WHMI) NAWQA Study Unit in Indiana and Ohio, hereafter termed Midwest. Information from this study may help determine which biological-community-composition group or groups are most appropriate in nutrient-assessment studies and nutrient-criteria development.