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<br />Study reach delineation <br /> <br />Rivers to be sampled include the Colorado River, the Green River, the Gunnison River, the <br /> <br />White River, and the Yampa River. The sampling units in this monitoring project should be <br /> <br />unique riverine habitat types stratified by reach (sensu strata, Osmundson et al. 1995). Sampling <br /> <br />- <br /> <br />reaches along each river were delineated based on geology, large tributary stream confluences, the <br /> <br />presence of endangered fish populations, and previous fish and invertebrate investigations. <br /> <br />Sampling reaches for the Colorado River, the Gi-een River, the Gunnison River, the White River, <br /> <br />and the Yampa River are listed in Table 2. <br /> <br />Reaches that contain major tributary stream confluences should be separated to include <br /> <br />sampling locations above and below tributary streams. Initially, all reaches shown in Table 2 <br /> <br />should be sampled. After preliminary data analysis, the number of reaches may be reduced. If the <br /> <br />number of reaches is reduced, it will be importailt that we do not lose information on the <br /> <br />connectivity of reaches. One of Dr. Stanford's recommendations was the need to understand <br /> <br />invertebrate communities in a river continuum context. <br /> <br />Within reach sampling locations should be selected based on the availability and samplability <br /> <br />of different habitat types (Table 1). Samples should be collected from all major habitat types <br /> <br />within each reach. The purpose of sampling all major habitat types rather than just riffles, which <br /> <br />is most common, is that different habitat types have different invertebrate assemblages and <br /> <br />different responses to stream discharge events. At this time, we do not know which habitats are <br /> <br />most productive, how habitat specific production is affected by different discharge regimes, or <br /> <br />what organisms can be used as indicators of high quality habitat conditions (Stanford 1994). <br /> <br />4 <br />