Daren M Carlisle, Ph.D.
Science and Products
The quality of our Nation’s waters--ecological health in the Nation's streams, 1993-2005
This report summarizes a national assessment of the ecological health of streams done by the U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) National Water-Quality Assessment Program (NAWQA). Healthy functioning stream ecosystems provide society with many benefits, including water purification, flood control, nutrient recycling, waste decomposition, fisheries,...
Carlisle, Daren M.; Meador, Michael R.; Short, Terry M.; Tate, Cathy M.; Gurtz, Martin E.; Bryant, Wade L.; Falcone, James A.; Woodside, Michael D.
Ecological health in the Nation's streams
Aquatic biological communities, which are collections of organisms, are a direct measure of stream health because they indicate the ability of a stream to support life. This fact sheet highlights selected findings of a national assessment of stream health by the National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS...
Carlisle, Daren M.; Woodside, Michael D.
Predicting thermal reference conditions for USA streams and rivers
Temperature is a primary driver of the structure and function of stream ecosystems. However, the lack of stream temperature (ST) data for the vast majority of streams and rivers severely compromises our ability to describe patterns of thermal variation among streams, test hypotheses regarding the effects of temperature on macroecological patterns...
Hill, Ryan A.; Hawkins, Charles P.; Carlisle, Daren M. Relations between altered stramflow variability and fish assemblages in Eastern USA streams
Although altered streamflow has been implicated as a major factor affecting fish assemblages, understanding the extent of streamflow alteration has required quantifying attributes of the natural flow regime. We used predictive models to quantify deviation from expected natural streamflow variability for streams in the eastern USA. Sites with >...
Meador, Michael R.; Carlisle, Daren M. Variance partitioning of stream diatom, fish, and invertebrate indicators of biological condition
Stream indicators used to make assessments of biological condition are influenced by many possible sources of variability. To examine this issue, we used multiple-year and multiple-reach diatom, fish, and invertebrate data collected from 20 least-disturbed and 46 developed stream segments between 1993 and 2004 as part of the US Geological Survey...
Zuellig, Robert E.; Carlisle, Daren M.; Meador, Michael R.; Potapova, Marina
Development and application of indices to assess the condition of benthic algal communities in U.S. streams and rivers
Multi-metric indices (MMIs) are a measure of a combination of characteristics of biological communities and are used as indicators of water quality and ecological health. Although MMIs for algal communities have been developed for specific regions of the United States, none of the indices have national applicability. The MMIs described in this...
Potapova, Marina; Carlisle, Daren M. Alteration of streamflow magnitudes and potential ecological consequences: A multiregional assessment
Human impacts on watershed hydrology are widespread in the US, but the prevalence and severity of stream-flow alteration and its potential ecological consequences have not been quantified on a national scale. We assessed streamflow alteration at 2888 streamflow monitoring sites throughout the conterminous US. The magnitudes of mean annual (1980–...
Carlisle, Daren M.; Wolock, David M.; Meador, Michael R. The relative importance of physicochemical factors to stream biological condition in urbanizing basins: Evidence from multimodel inference
Many physicochemical factors potentially impair stream ecosystems in urbanizing basins, but few studies have evaluated their relative importance simultaneously, especially in different environmental settings. We used data collected in 25 to 30 streams along a gradient of urbanization in each of 6 metropolitan areas (MAs) to evaluate the relative...
Carlisle, Daren M.; Bryant, Wade L. GAGES: A stream gage database for evaluating natural and alteredflow conditions in the conterminous United States
Stream flow is a controlling element in the ecology of rivers and streams. Knowledge of the natural flow regime facilitates the assessment of whether specific hydrologic attributes have been altered by humans in a particular stream and the establishment of specific goals for stream-flow restoration. Because most streams are ungaged or have been...
Falcone, James A.; Carlisle, Daren M.; Wolock, David M.; Meador, Michael R. Quantifying human disturbance in watersheds: Variable selection and performance of a GIS-based disturbance index for predicting the biological condition of perennial streams
Characterizing the relative severity of human disturbance in watersheds is often part of stream assessments and is frequently done with the aid of Geographic Information System (GIS)-derived data. However, the choice of variables and how they are used to quantify disturbance are often subjective. In this study, we developed a number of disturbance...
Falcone, James A.; Carlisle, Daren M.; Weber, Lisa C. Using propensity scores to estimate the effects of insecticides on stream invertebrates from observational data
Analyses of observational data can provide insights into relationships between environmental conditions and biological responses across a broader range of natural conditions than experimental studies, potentially complementing insights gained from experiments. However, observational data must be analyzed carefully to minimize the likelihood that...
Lester L. Yuan; Amina I. Pollard; Carlisle, Daren M. Predictive models for fish assemblages in eastern USA streams: implications for assessing biodiversity
Management and conservation of aquatic systems require the ability to assess biological conditions and identify changes in biodiversity. Predictive models for fish assemblages were constructed to assess biological condition and changes in biodiversity for streams sampled in the eastern United States as part of the U.S. Geological Survey's National...
Meador, Michael R.; Carlisle, Daren M.