Jeffrey Frey
Jeff's research focuses on the transport of and biological response to nutrients. Most of the research occurs in the Midwest, primarily in the Cornbelt ecoregion. Recently the focus has been on edge of field studies and Super gages (especially continuous nitrate and orthophosphate) to better understand transport of nutrients.
Biography
Jeff received his B.S. from the University of Minnesota in Environmental Studies in 1986 and his M.S. from the Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs in 1992. He began working with the USGS after graduate school in Indiana with the National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program and has held several positions since then. Currently, he is the Indiana Deputy Director of the USGS Indiana-Kentucky Water Science Center in Indianapolis. Other non-USGS work highlights includes working with Peace Corps in Cameroon teaching inland fisheries (1986-88) and as an observer with the National Marine Fisheries Service off of Alaska (1990).
Science and Products
Environmental Effects of Agricultural Practices
As agricultural land in the Minnesota River Basin is retired, tile drains are removed or broken and riparian corridors are planted to reduce runoff. Early studies saw decreased sediment and nitrogen and improved biological indicators but no significant changes in phosphorus. This project continues to investigate the linkages...
Collaboration Groups
One of the strongest ways to ensure that science is done effectively and efficiently in the midst of ever decreasing budgets is to collaborate.
Ecological Monitoring
Scientists research biology, botany, microbiology, habitat, climate, water quality, and other fields to achieve a comprehensive view of ecosystems and their health. Ecosystems can be easily stressed by human activities, climate change, sediment, nutrients, contaminants, and many other variables. Ecosystem monitoring is critical to ecosystem health and answers important questions about the...
Biological Response to Nutrients
Eutrophication, or excess nutrients in streams, is typically one of the top reasons that a stream is listed as impaired on the 303(d) list as part of the Clean Water Act.
Transport and Fate of Nutrients
Eutrophication, or excess nutrients in streams, is typically one of the top reasons that a stream is listed as impaired on the 303(d) list as part of the Clean Water Act. How nutrients, primarily nitrogen and phosphorus, are transported to streams and groundwater greatly affects the best management plan to keep them on fields and out of streams and groundwater. Likewise, environmental managers...
Understanding the influence of nutrients on stream ecosystems in agricultural landscapes
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,...
Munn, Mark D.; Frey, Jeffrey W.; Tesoriero, Anthony J.; Black, Robert W.; Duff, John H.; Lee, Kathy E.; Maret, Terry R.; Mebane, Christopher A.; Waite, Ian R.; Zelt, Ronald B.
Relative importance of water-quality stressors in predicting fish community responses in midwestern streams
Fish, habitat, and water chemistry data were collected from 98 streams in the midwestern United States, an area dominated by intense cultivation of row crops, in order to identify important water‐quality stressors to fish communities. We focused on 10 stressors including riparian disturbance, riparian vegetative cover, instream fish cover,...
Meador, Michael R.; Frey, Jeffrey W. 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 J.; Wieczorek, Michael; Button, Daniel T. Stream sediment sources in midwest agricultural basins with land retirement along channel
Documenting the effects of agricultural land retirement on stream-sediment sources is critical to identifying management practices that improve water quality and aquatic habitat. Particularly difficult to quantify are the effects from conservation easements that commonly are discontinuous along channelized streams and ditches throughout the...
Williamson, Tanja N.; Christensen, Victoria G.; Richardson, William B.; Frey, Jeffrey W.; Gellis, Allen C.; Kieta, K. A.; Fitzpatrick, Faith A.
Identifying nutrient reference sites in nutrient-enriched regions-Using algal, invertebrate, and fish-community measures to identify stressor-breakpoint thresholds in Indiana rivers and streams, 2005-9
Excess nutrients in aquatic ecosystems can lead to shifts in species composition, reduced dissolved oxygen concentrations, fish kills, and toxic algal blooms. In this study, nutrients, periphyton chlorophyll a (CHLa), and invertebrate- and fishcommunity data collected during 2005-9 were analyzed from 318 sites on Indiana rivers and streams. The...
Caskey, Brian J.; Bunch, Aubrey R.; Shoda, Megan E.; Frey, Jeffrey W.; Selvaratnam, Shivi; Miltner, Robert J.
The Midwest Stream Quality Assessment
In 2013, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Water-Quality Assessment Program (NAWQA) and USGS Columbia Environmental Research Center (CERC) will be collaborating with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) National Rivers and Streams Assessment (NRSA) to assess stream quality across the Midwestern United States. The sites selected...
USGS library for S-PLUS for Windows -- Release 4.0
Release 4.0 of the U.S. Geological Survey S-PLUS library supercedes release 2.1. It comprises functions, dialogs, and datasets used in the U.S. Geological Survey for the analysis of water-resources data. This version does not contain ESTREND, which was in version 2.1. See Release 2.1 for information and access to that version. This library...
Lorenz, David L.; Ahearn, Elizabeth A.; Carter, Janet M.; Cohn, Timothy A.; Danchuk, Wendy J.; Frey, Jeffrey W.; Helsel, Dennis R.; Lee, Kathy E.; Leeth, David C.; Martin, Jeffrey D.; McGuire, Virginia L.; Neitzert, Kathleen M.; Robertson, Dale M.; Slack, James R.; Starn, J. Jeffrey; Vecchia, Aldo V.; Wilkison, Donald H.; Williamson, Joyce E.
Assessment of nutrient enrichment by use of algal-, invertebrate-, and fish-community attributes in wadeable streams in ecoregions surrounding the Great Lakes
The algal, invertebrate, and fish taxa and community attributes that best reflect the effects of nutrients along a gradient of low to high nutrient concentrations in wadeable, primarily midwestern streams were determined as part of the U.S. Geological Suvey's National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program. Nutrient data collected from 64...
Frey, Jeffrey W.; Bell, Amanda H.; Hambrook Berkman, Julie A.; Lorenz, David L.
Breakpoint Analysis and Assessment of Selected Stressor Variables on Benthic Macroinvertebrate and Fish Communities in Indiana Streams: Implications for Developing Nutrient Criteria
Water chemistry, periphyton and seston chlorophyll a (CHLa), and biological community data were collected from 321 sites from 2001 through 2005 to (1) determine statistically and ecologically significant relations among the stressor (total nitrogen, total phosphorus, periphyton and seston CHLa, and turbidity) variables and response (biological...
Caskey, Brian J.; Frey, Jeffrey W.; Selvaratnam, Shivi The influence of nutrients and physical habitat in regulating algal biomass in agricultural streams
This study examined the relative influence of nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus) and habitat on algal biomass in five agricultural regions of the United States. Sites were selected to capture a range of nutrient conditions, with 136 sites distributed over five study areas. Samples were collected in either 2003 or 2004, and analyzed for nutrients...
Munn, Mark D.; Frey, Jeffrey W.; Tesoriero, Anthony J.
Biological-Community Composition in Small Streams and its Relations to Habitat, Nutrients, and Land Use in Agriculturally Dominated Landscapes in Indiana and Ohio, 2004, and Implications for Assessing Nutrient Conditions in Midwest Streams
The objective of this study was to relate algal-, invertebrate-, and fish-community composition to habitat, nutrients, and land-use variables in small streams in agriculturally dominated landscapes of the Midwest in Indiana and Ohio. Thirty sample locations were selected from a single ecoregion; all were small wadable streams within agriculturally...
Caskey, Brian J.; Frey, Jeffrey W.
Occurrence and distribution of algal biomass and Its relation to nutrients and selected basin characteristics in Indiana streams, 2001-2005
Algal biomass and nutrient data were gathered at 322 randomly selected sites on 261 streams in the West Fork White River, Whitewater River, East Fork White River, Upper Wabash River, Kankakee River, Lower Wabash River, Tributaries to the Great Lakes, and Tributaries to the Ohio River Basins in Indiana from May through October for years 2001...
Lowe, B. Scott; Leer, Donald R.; Frey, Jeffrey W.; Caskey, Brian J.
Summer 2019 Newsletter
Science highlights included in this issue are: “Super Gages” and a summary of Wettest Year on Record for the Ohio River Basin.
Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana 2019 Cooperator Meeting
The USGS Kentucky office hosted their third annual cooperator meeting on April 18, 2019 and the Indiana office hosted their second cooperator meeting on April 23, 2019. OKI Staff gave presentations and technolgy demonstrations for an audience of local, state, and federal cooperators and USGS staff.
The USGS Ohio office will host their first cooperator meeting in 2020.
Winter 2019 Newsletter
Science highlights included in this issue are Mobile SuperGage Float Trip, “River stage” does not necessarily
mean “River depth”, Interagency Workshop to Develop Predictive Models for Recreational and Drinking-Water Treatment Plant Sites, Introducing The Next Generation of USGS Water Data for the Nation, and Streamgage Changes to the Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Monitoring Network.
Summer 2018 Newsletter
The Summer 2018 edition of the Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Water Science Center Newsletter highlights science and selected OKI WSC staff. Science highlights include Nowcast, monitoring in the ...
Winter 2018 Newsletter
Thanks for viewing this first version of the Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Water Science Center Newsletter. I use this format a few times a year to highlight U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) activities and water-related science going on at the Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Water Science Center (OKI WSC).
IN-KY Summer 2017 Newsletter
Highlights of the USGS activities and water-related science going on at the Indiana-Kentucky Water Science Center and some of our amazing scientists that work for the USGS.
IN-KY Winter Newsletter 2016
Welcome to the “Winter 2016” version of the IN-KY Newsletter. I use this format two to four times a year to highlight USGS activities and water-related science going on at the Indiana-Kentucky Water Science Center. I also take advantage of this opportunity to highlight some of our amazing scientists that work for the USGS.
Annual Cooperator's Meeting
The Indiana-Kentucky Water Science Center Hosted its annual cooperator/scientific workshop on October 5 for our Indiana Cooperators and Partners, and October 6 for the Kentucky Cooperators and Partners.
Indiana-Kentucky Spring-Summer 2016 Newsletter
Welcome to the fourth installment or the “Spring-Summer 2016” version of the IN-KY Newsletter.