Daren M Carlisle, Ph.D.
Science and Products
Streamflow Alteration
Humans, just like aquatic organisms, need water. Flood control, urban infrastructure, irrigation of agriculture, and myriad other ways we manage water affect the natural flow of streams and rivers. How do the ways we manage land and water affect the natural patterns of streamflow that ecosystems depend on?
Stream Ecology
Who lives in your stream? Rivers and streams, even small ones, are teeming with a vast number of species, including fish, aquatic invertebrates, and algae. Stream ecology is the study of those aquatic species, the way they interrelate, and their interactions with all aspects of these flowing water systems.
Effects of flow alteration on ecological health of streams across the Atlantic Highlands Ecoregion
Problem: The Clean Water Act (PL 92-500) requires that the health of the Nation’s rivers and streams be assessed on a regular basis, and in the Northeast such assessments often use information from aquatic biological communities that live in the stream. Biomonitoring programs implemented by individual states evaluate biological data to assess stream health on the premise that certain...
Sustaining Environmental Capital Initiative summary report
Federal agencies need credible scientific information to determine the production and value of ecosystem services in an efficient and timely manner. The U.S. Geological Survey addresses this scientific information need through the Sustaining Environmental Capital Initiative project. The project has relied on U.S. Geological Survey expertise...
Huber, Christopher; Meldrum, James R.; Schuster, Rudy M.; Ancona, Zachary H.; Bagstad, Kenneth J.; Beck, Scott M.; Carlisle, Daren M.; Claggett, Peter R.; Franco, Fabiano; Galbraith, Heather S.; Haefele, Michelle; Hoelting, Kristin R; Hogan, Dianna M.; Hopkins, Kristina G.; Kern, Tim; Lawrence, Collin B.; Lischka, Stacy; Loomis, John B.; Mueller, Julie M.; Noe, Gregory B.; Pindilli, Emily J.; Quay, Brian; Semmens, Darius J.; Sinclair, Wilson; Spooner, Daniel E.; Voigt, Brian; St. John White, Barabara
Severity and extent of alterations to natural streamflow regimes based on hydrologic metrics in the conterminous United States, 1980–2014
Alteration of the natural streamflow regime by land and water management, such as land-cover change and dams, is associated with aquatic ecosystem degradation. The severity and geographic extent of streamflow alteration at regional and national scales, however, remain largely unquantified. The primary goal of this study is to characterize the...
Eng, Ken; Carlisle, Daren M.; Grantham, Theodore E.; Wolock, David M.; Eng, Rosaly L.
Flow modification in the Nation’s streams and rivers
This report summarizes a national assessment of flowing waters conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey’s (USGS) National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Project and addresses several pressing questions about the modification of natural flows in streams and rivers. The assessment is based on the integration, modeling, and synthesis of...
Carlisle, Daren M.; Wolock, David M.; Konrad, Christopher P.; McCabe, Gregory J.; Eng, Ken; Theodore E. Grantham; Mahler, Barbara
Projected urban growth in the Southeastern USA puts small streams at risk
Future land-use development has the potential to profoundly affect the health of aquatic ecosystems in the coming decades. We developed regression models predicting the loss of sensitive fish (R2=0.39) and macroinvertebrate (R2=0.64) taxa as a function of urban and agricultural land uses and applied them to projected urbanization of the rapidly...
Van Metre, Peter C.; Waite, Ian R.; Qi, Sharon L.; Mahler, Barbara; Terando, Adam; Wieczorek, Michael; Meador, Michael R.; Bradley, Paul M.; Journey, Celeste A.; Schmidt, Travis S.; Carlisle, Daren M.
Regional-scale associations between indicators of biological integrity and indicators of streamflow modification
Although streamflow is widely recognized as a controlling factor in stream health, empirical relations between indicators of anthropogenic modification of streamflow and ecological indicators have been elusive. The objective of this report is to build upon specific findings reported in recent publications by providing a library of empirical models...
Carlisle, Daren M.; Grantham, Theodore E.; Eng, Ken; Wolock, David M. Effects of urban multi-stressors on three stream biotic assemblages
During 2014, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Water-Quality Assessment(NAWQA) project assessed stream quality in 75 streams across an urban disturbance gradient within the Piedmont ecoregion of southeastern United States. Our objectives were to identify primary instream stressors affecting algal, macroinvertebrate...
Waite, Ian R.; Munn, Mark D.; Moran, Patrick W.; Konrad, Christopher P.; Nowell, Lisa H.; Meador, Michael R.; Van Metre, Peter C.; Carlisle, Daren M. Effects of antecedent streamflow and sample timing on trend assessments of fish, invertebrate, and diatom communities
Detecting trends in biological attributes is central to many stream monitoring programs; however, understanding how natural variability in environmental factors affects trend results is not well understood. We evaluated the influence of antecedent streamflow and sample timing (covariates) on trend estimates for fish, invertebrate, and diatom taxa...
Zuellig, Robert E.; Carlisle, Daren M. Linking the agricultural landscape of the Midwest to stream health with structural equation modeling
Multiple physical and chemical stressors can simultaneously affect the biological condition of streams. To better understand the complex interactions of land-use practices, water quality, and ecological integrity of streams, the U.S. Geological Survey National Water Quality Assessment Project is conducting regional-scale assessments of stream...
Schmidt, Travis S.; Van Metre, Peter C.; Carlisle, Daren M. A database of natural monthly streamflow estimates from 1950 to 2015 for the conterminous United States
Quantifying and understanding the natural streamflow regime, defined as expected streamflow that would occur in the absence of anthropogenic modification to the hydrologic system, is critically important for the development of management strategies aimed at protecting aquatic ecosystems. Water balance models have been applied frequently to...
Miller, Matthew P.; Carlisle, Daren M.; Wolock, David M.; Wieczorek, Michael
The Midwest Stream Quality Assessment—Influences of human activities on streams
Healthy streams and the fish and other organisms that live in them contribute to our quality of life. Extensive modification of the landscape in the Midwestern United States, however, has profoundly affected the condition of streams. Row crops and pavement have replaced grasslands and woodlands, streams have been straightened, and wetlands and...
Van Metre, Peter C.; Mahler, Barbara; Carlisle, Daren M.; Coles, James F. 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 M.; 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 M.; Grantham, Theodore E.; Eng, Ken; Wolock, David M.