Surface-Water Quality and Ecology
Featured: Predicting Levels of Cyanotoxins From Real-Time Measurements
A new study successfully predicts when mixtures of the toxins produced by these blooms in Kabetogama Lake, Voyageurs National Park, will exceed drinking-water guidelines.
Learn moreFeatured: Pesticide Transformation Products in Small U.S. Streams
Pesticide transformation products are ubiquitous in small U.S. streams, reports a new study by the U.S. Geological Survey, and could be a missing piece to the toxicity puzzle for aquatic life in headwater streams.
Learn MoreScience Center Objects
Research by the USGS National Water Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Project on water quality of rivers and streams covers a broad range of topics, from nonpoint pollution issues to vulnerability of aquatic ecosystems. Dive in and find out more about current water-quality conditions, how and where water quality is changing, and the latest information on pesticides, nutrients, and other contaminants.
The Nation's rivers and streams are a priceless resource—they provide drinking water for a growing population, irrigation for crops, habitat for aquatic life, and countless recreational opportunities.
NAWQA research on surface-water quality is focusing on three areas:
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current conditions and trends in water quality in the Nation’s rivers and streams;
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developing models and interactive mappers that estimate the amount of a contaminant transported from inland watersheds to larger water bodies (SPAtially Referenced Regression On Watershed attributes, or SPARROW); and
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characterizing water quality and ecology in hundreds of small streams across the United States (Regional Stream Quality Assessments; RSQA).
Explore NAWQA science on topics related to water quality in streams and rivers
Relations between land use and surface-water quality
Contaminants in surface water
Emerging contaminants (pharmaceuticals, personal-care products, and more)
Sediment-associated contaminants (metals, pesticides, PAHs, and more)
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs)
Relations to aquatic life
Drinking water issues
Trends in water quality
Water-quality trends from lake sediment cores
How do we do it?
Access USGS publications and manuals on sample-collection methods.
Looking for information on groundwater quality as well?
Explore these links:
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Year Published: 2018Agriculture — A river runs through it — The connections between agriculture and water quality
Sustaining the quality of the Nation’s water resources and the health of our diverse ecosystems depends on the availability of sound water-resources data and information to develop effective, science-based policies. Effective management of water resources also brings more certainty and efficiency to important economic sectors. Taken together,...
Capel, Paul D.; McCarthy, Kathleen A.; Coupe, Richard H.; Grey, Katia M.; Amenumey, Sheila E.; Baker, Nancy T.; Johnson, Richard L.Attribution: Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Water Science Center, Water ResourcesView CitationCapel, P.D., McCarthy, K.A., Coupe, R.H., Grey, K.M., Amenumey, S.E., Baker, N.T., and Johnson, R.L., 2018, Agriculture — A River runs through it — The connections between agriculture and water quality: U.S. Geological Survey Circular 1433, 201 p., https://doi.org/10.3133/cir1433.
Predictability and selection of hydrologic metrics in riverine ecohydrology
The natural flow regime is critical to the health of riverine ecosystems. Many hydrologic metrics (HMs) have been developed to describe natural flow regimes, quantify flow alteration, and provide the hydrologic foundation for the development of environmental flow standards. Many applications require the use of models to predict expected natural...
Eng, Ken; Grantham, Theodore E.; Carlisle, Daren; Wolock, David M. Biological relevance of streamflow metrics: Regional and national perspectives
Protecting the health of streams and rivers requires identifying ecologically significant attributes of the natural flow regime. Streamflow regimes are routinely quantified using a plethora of hydrologic metrics (HMs), most of which have unknown relevance to biological communities. At regional and national scales, we evaluated which of 509...
Carlisle, Daren; Grantham, Theodore E.; Eng, Ken; Wolock, David M. Influence of sediment chemistry and sediment toxicity on macroinvertebrate communities across 99 wadable streams of the Midwestern USA
Simultaneous assessment of sediment chemistry, sediment toxicity, and macroinvertebrate communities can provide multiple lines of evidence when investigating relations between sediment contaminants and ecological degradation. These three measures were evaluated at 99 wadable stream sites across 11 states in the Midwestern United States during the...
Moran, Patrick W.; Nowell, Lisa H.; Kemble, Nile E.; Mahler, Barbara; Waite, Ian R.; Van Metre, Peter C. Multistressor predictive models of invertebrate condition in the Corn Belt, USA
Understanding the complex relations between multiple environmental stressors and ecological conditions in streams can help guide resource-management decisions. During 14 weeks in spring/summer 2013, personnel from the US Geological Survey and the US Environmental Protection Agency sampled 98 wadeable streams across the Midwest Corn Belt region of...
Waite, Ian R.; Van Metre, Peter C. Holistic assessment of occurrence and fate of metolachlor within environmental compartments of agricultural watersheds
Background: Metolachlor [(RS)-2-Chloro-N-(2-ethyl-6-methyl-phenyl)-N-(1-methoxypropan-2-yl)acetamide] and two degradates (metolachlor ethane-sulfonic acid and metolachlor oxanilic acid) are commonly observed in surface and groundwater. The behavior and fate of these compounds were examined over a 12-year period in seven agricultural watersheds in...
Rose, Claire E.; Coupe, Richard H.; Capel, Paul D.; Webb, Richard M. Complex mixtures of Pesticides in Midwest U.S. streams indicated by POCIS time-integrating samplers
The Midwest United States is an intensely agricultural region where pesticides in streams pose risks to aquatic biota, but temporal variability in pesticide concentrations makes characterization of their exposure to organisms challenging. To compensate for the effects of temporal variability, we deployed polar organic chemical integrative samplers...
Van Metre, Peter C.; Alvarez, David; Mahler, Barbara; Nowell, Lisa H.; Sandstrom, Mark W.; Moran, Patrick W. Sources and ages of fine-grained sediment to streams using fallout radionuclides in the Midwestern United States
Fallout radionuclides, 7Be and 210Pbex, sampled in bed sediment for 99 watersheds in the Midwestern region of the United States and in 15 samples of suspended sediment from 3 of these watersheds were used to partition upland from channel sources and to estimate the age or the time since the surface-derived portion of sediment was on the...
Gellis, Allen; Fuller, Christopher C.; Van Metre, Peter C. Similarities and differences in occurrence and temporal fluctuations in glyphosate and atrazine in small Midwestern streams (USA) during the 2013 growing season
Glyphosate and atrazine are the most intensively used herbicides in the United States. Although there is abundant spatial and temporal information on atrazine occurrence at regional scales, there are far fewer data for glyphosate, and studies that compare the two herbicides are rare. We investigated temporal patterns in glyphosate and atrazine...
Mahler, Barbara; Van Metre, Peter C.; Burley, Thomas E.; Loftin, Keith A.; Meyer, Michael T.; Nowell, Lisa H. Challenges with secondary use of multi-source water-quality data in the United States
Combining water-quality data from multiple sources can help counterbalance diminishing resources for stream monitoring in the United States and lead to important regional and national insights that would not otherwise be possible. Individual monitoring organizations understand their own data very well, but issues can arise when their data are...
Sprague, Lori A.; Oelsner, Gretchen P.; Argue, Denise M. High nitrate concentrations in some Midwest United States streams in 2013 after the 2012 drought
Nitrogen sources in the Mississippi River basin have been linked to degradation of stream ecology and to Gulf of Mexico hypoxia. In 2013, the USGS and the USEPA characterized water quality stressors and ecological conditions in 100 wadeable streams across the midwestern United States. Wet conditions in 2013 followed a severe drought in 2012, a...
Van Metre, Peter C.; Frey, Jeffrey W.; Musgrove, MaryLynn; Nakagaki, Naomi; Qi, Sharon L.; Mahler, Barbara; Wieczorek, Michael E.; Button, Daniel T. Prediction of pesticide toxicity in Midwest streams
The occurrence of pesticide mixtures is common in stream waters of the United States, and the impact of multiple compounds on aquatic organisms is not well understood. Watershed Regressions for Pesticides (WARP) models were developed to predict Pesticide Toxicity Index (PTI) values in unmonitored streams in the Midwest and are referred to as WARP-...
Shoda, Megan E.; Stone, Wesley W.; Nowell, Lisa H. Bifenthrin causes trophic cascades and alters insect emergence in mesocosms: implication for small streams
Direct and indirect ecological effects of the widely used insecticide bifenthrin on stream ecosystems are largely unknown. To investigate such effects, a manipulative experiment was conducted in stream mesocosms that were colonized by aquatic insect communities and exposed to bifenthrin-contaminated sediment; implications for natural streams were...
Rogers, Holly; Schmidt, Travis S.; Dabney, Brittanie L.; Hladik, Michelle; Mahler, Barbara; Van Metre, Peter C.-
Date published: June 29, 2016Real and synthetic data used to test the Two-tracer Ratio-based Mixing Model (TRaMM)
This USGS Data Release represents the synthetic and real data from hydrologically diverse streams used to test the performance and limitations of the Two-tracer Ratio-based Mixing Model (TRaMM) which uses high-frequency measures of two tracers (A and B) and streamflow to separate total streamflow into water from slowflow and fastflow sources. The ratio between the concentrations of the tw
Attribution: New Jersey Water Science Center -
Date published: March 17, 2016
Langelier Saturation Indices Computed for U.S. Groundwater, 1991-2015; Water Well Data
The occurrence of metals, such as lead and copper, in household drinking supplies can often be a result of the corrosion of pipes and joints in water distribution systems. One measure of the potential for water to cause corrosion is the Langelier Saturation Index (LSI) (Langelier, 1936). The LSI is a measure of the potential for water to deposit a mineral layer (scale) within a
Attribution: Water Resources -
Date published: March 11, 2016
Patterns of Diel Variation in Nitrate Concentrations in the Potomac River
This data set includes nitrate concentration, water temperature, and discharge collected every 15 minutes during Dec. 2011 - Nov. 2013 from the USGS gage at the Potomac River near Wash, DC, Little Falls Pump Sta (01646500). Additional data includes day length from the US Naval Observatory, and photosynthetically active radiation from USDA research station in Beltsville, MD. Data o
Attribution: New York Water Science Center
Isotopic tracers in fish in Northeast provide clue to mercury sources
Isotopes of mercury in fish can indicate the source of that mercury, reports a new study from the USGS Regional Stream Quality Assessment.