Fish Communities and Their Relation to Environmental Factors in the Eastern Iowa Basins in Iowa and Minnesota, 1996
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U.S. Department of the Interior U.S. Geological Survey National Water-Quality Assessment Program Fish Communities and Their Relation to Environmental Factors in the Eastern Iowa Basins in Iowa and Minnesota, 1996 Water-Resources Investigations Report 00–4194 Eastern Iowa Basins 93° 43° 92° National Water-Quality Assessment Study Unit 91° 42° r ive R i p p i s s i s s i M 41° U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY Fish Communities and Their Relation to Environmental Factors in the Eastern Iowa Basins in Iowa and Minnesota, 1996 By Daniel J. Sullivan Water-Resources Investigations Report 00–4194 Iowa City, Iowa 2000 FOR E WOR D The mission of the U.S. Geological Survey • Describe how water quality is changing over (USGS) is to assess the quantity and quality of the time. earth resources of the Nation and to provide informa- • Improve understanding of the primary natural tion that will assist resource managers and policymak- and human factors that affect water-quality ers at Federal, State, and local levels in making sound conditions. decisions. Assessment of water-quality conditions and This information will help support the development trends is an important part of this overall mission. and evaluation of management, regulatory, and moni- One of the greatest challenges faced by water- toring decisions by other Federal, State, and local resources scientists is acquiring reliable information agencies to protect, use, and enhance water resources. that will guide the use and protection of the Nation’s The goals of the NAWQA Program are being water resources. That challenge is being addressed by achieved through ongoing and proposed investigations Federal, State, interstate, and local water-resource of 59 of the Nation’s most important river basins and agencies and by many academic institutions. These aquifer systems, which are referred to as study units. organizations are collecting water-quality data for a These study units are distributed throughout the host of purposes that include: compliance with permits Nation and cover a diversity of hydrogeologic settings. and water-supply standards; development of remedia- More than two-thirds of the Nation’s freshwater use tion plans for specific contamination problems; opera- occurs within the 59 study units and more than tional decisions on industrial, wastewater, or water- two-thirds of the people served by public water-supply supply facilities; and research on factors that affect systems live within their boundaries. water quality. An additional need for water-quality National synthesis of data analysis, based on information is to provide a basis on which regional- aggregation of comparable information obtained from and national-level policy decisions can be based. Wise the study units, is a major component of the program. decisions must be based on sound information. As a This effort focuses on selected water-quality topics society we need to know whether certain types of using nationally consistent information. Comparative water-quality problems are isolated or ubiquitous, studies will explain differences and similarities in whether there are significant differences in conditions observed water-quality conditions among study areas among regions, whether the conditions are changing and will identify changes and trends and their causes. over time, and why these conditions change from The first topics addressed by the national synthesis are place to place and over time. The information can be pesticides, nutrients, volatile organic compounds, and used to help determine the efficacy of existing water- aquatic biology. Discussions on these and other water- quality policies and to help analysts determine the quality topics will be published in periodic summaries need for and likely consequences of new policies. of the quality of the Nation’s ground and surface water To address these needs, the U.S. Congress appropri- as the information becomes available. ated funds in 1986 for the USGS to begin a pilot pro- This report is an element of the comprehensive gram in seven project areas to develop and refine the body of information developed as part of the NAWQA National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Pro- Program. The program depends heavily on the advice, gram. In 1991, the USGS began full implementation of cooperation, and information from many Federal, the program. The NAWQA Program builds upon an State, interstate, Tribal, and local agencies and the existing base of water-quality studies of the USGS, as public. The assistance and suggestions of all are well as those of other Federal, State, and local agencies. greatly appreciated. The objectives of the NAWQA Program are to: • Describe current water-quality conditions for a large part of the Nation’s freshwater streams, rivers, and aquifers. Robert M. Hirsch Chief Hydrologist FOR E WOR D III CONTENTS Abstract ................................................................................................................................................................................. 1 Introduction........................................................................................................................................................................... 1 Background ................................................................................................................................................................. 2 Description of the study area ...................................................................................................................................... 3 Study design and methods........................................................................................................................................... 6 Study design...................................................................................................................................................... 6 Data-collection methods ................................................................................................................................... 6 Data-analysis methods ...................................................................................................................................... 7 Fish communities of stream sites in Eastern Iowa Basins .................................................................................................... 8 Fish community composition...................................................................................................................................... 8 Fish community conditions......................................................................................................................................... 15 Relations between fish community composition and conditions and environmental factors............................................... 15 Summary and conclusions .................................................................................................................................................... 18 References cited .................................................................................................................................................................... 19 FIGURES 1–2. Maps showing: 1. Location of fish-community sampling sites in the Eastern Iowa Basins study unit, 1996 ................................... 4 2. Land use in the Eastern Iowa Basins study unit ................................................................................................... 5 3–4. Graphs showing: 3. Number of fish collected as a function of drainage area, at 12 sites in the Eastern Iowa Basins study unit, 1996 .......................................................................................................................................................... 9 4. Patterns in fish communities shown by Detrended Correspondence Analysis (DCA) of 56 fish species at stream sites in the Eastern Iowa Basins study unit, 1996 ............................................................................. 14 TABLES 1. Description of fish-community sampling sites in the Eastern Iowa Basins study unit.............................................. 7 2. Summary of fish-community data collected in the Eastern Iowa Basins study unit, 1996 ....................................... 8 3. Species, relative abundance, and number of fish collected in the Eastern Iowa Basins study unit, 1996................. 10 4. Correlation matrix of Bhattacharyya’s coefficient of similarity for fish-community data collected in the Eastern Iowa Basins study unit, 1996..................................................................................................................... 13 5. Index of biotic integrity scores for fish-community data collected in the Eastern Iowa Basins study unit, 1996..... 16 6. Characteristics of reach level physical habitat and water quality for sites where fish-community data were collected in the Eastern Iowa Basins study unit, 1996 ........................................................................................... 17 CONTENTS V Fish Communities and Their Relation to Environmental Factors in the Eastern Iowa Basins in Iowa and Minnesota, 1996 By Daniel J. Sullivan Abstract large-river sites. The large-river sites were more likely to have their ordination driven by one or two Fish community data were collected by the dominant species, while several species occurred U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) at 12 sites in 1996 in similar relative abundance at many of the stream in the Wapsipinicon,