Fish, Streams, and Water Quality

Stream ecosystems support vital resources that may be jeopardized by climate change and climate stressors such as drought.

The findings of the study highlight that management practices can have both hidden costs and benefits to fish and macroinvertebrates depending on regional and local factors like how many and what type of management practices are implemented.

A new method was developed to remotely identify small, eroding streams and measure change over time.

Agricultural activities and natural factors may offset nutrient and sediment reductions from management activities.

The Susquehanna River is the predominant source of freshwater and nutrients entering the Chesapeake Bay.

Issue: Municipal and industrial wastewater effluent is an important source of water for streams and rivers, especially during periods of low flow. The reuse of wastewater effluent may become even more important if climate change exacerbates low streamflow and drought conditions. However, wastewater effluent often contains chemicals that, when chronically present, can affect the health of aquatic...

Farmers are an important part of the economy and heritage of the Chesapeake Bay. Farmers also act as stewards of the land and water. Across the Chesapeake Bay Watershed, members of the agricultural community are volunteering to adopt conservation practices on their land. The goal of these practices is to protect the health of the soil, local streams and rivers, and the Chesapeake Bay. These...

About the Research The Geospatial Analyses and Applications Core Technology Team (CTT) as part of the Environmental Health Program collaborates with teams across USGS to develop and apply geospatial analytical methods to answer broad-scale questions about source-sink and cause-effect relationships between contaminants and vulnerable communities.

The paper, Ephemeral Stream Network Extraction from Lidar-Derived Elevation and Topographic Attributes in Urban and Forested Landscapes, describes a new method of remotely mapping ephemeral headwater streams using wetness index and topographic openness derived from lidar. This work is part of a long-term USGS study assessing the impacts of suburban development on a range of ecosystem functions...

Issue: Degraded water quality and ecology in urban streams has been widely documented, but explanations of changing conditions over time are often unavailable. A 15-year collaborative urban stream monitoring effort between the Fairfax County Stormwater Planning Division and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is ongoing and has begun to shed light on this complex issue. In a new USGS report by...

Issue: Floodplains provide important services to people by retaining sediments, nutrients, and floodwaters, thereby improving water quality and reducing flooding impacts. Having information on how the monetary benefit that floodplains provide varies across the Chesapeake Bay and Delaware River watersheds helps resource managers describe the benefits that floodplains provide in their current state...

There are more than 92,000 dams in the United States, of which at least 3% of these produce hydropower. Hydropower projects create renewable energy but also can alter habitats, restrict upstream and downstream movements of fishes and other aquatic organisms, and may stress, injure or kill migrant fishes and other aquatic organisms. In addition, there are more than 5 million culverts and other road...