Inventory of Biological Investigations Related to Stream Water Quality in the South Platte River Basin, Colorado, Nebraska, and Wyoming

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Inventory of Biological Investigations Related To Stream Water Quality in the South Platte River Basin, Colorado, Nebraska, and Wyoming, 1891 -1994 By Cathy M. Tate and Jorge R. Ortiz -Zayas Abstract An inventory of the biological investiga- tions conducted in the South Platte River Basin from 1891 to 1994 was done as a part of the U.S. Geological Survey's National Water - Quality Assessment (NAWQA) program in the South Platte River Basin. To aid in the sampling design of the biological component of the South Platte NAWQA, sources of water - related studies were compiled from computerized literature searches of biological data bases and by contacting other Federal, State, and local agencies. Biological investigations were categorized by their location in either of two major physiographic provinces — the Southern Rocky Mountains or the Great Plains, or in the transition zone between the moun- tains and the plains. From this collection of 102 references, five general categories of biologi- cal investigations were identified: algae, inverte- brates, fish, habitat characterization, and chemi- cals in organism tissue. The most abundant literature was on studies of invertebrate and fish communities. Invertebrate studies primarily were conducted in the mountain region. There was lim- ited information on algae, invertebrates in the plains region, flood -plain vegetation in the moun- tains and transition zone, and chemicals in organ- ism tissue. INTRODUCTION In 1991, the U.S. Geological Survey imple- mented the National Water - Quality Assessment (NAWQA) program. The NAWQA program is designed to describe the status of, and trends in, the Nation's surface- and ground -water resources and to provide an understanding of the natural and human fac- tors that affect the quality of these resources (Hirsch and others, 1988; Leahy and others, 1990). The NAWQA program is an integrated approach using physical, chemical, and biological measurements to assess water quality. The biological component includes information on: (1) Trace- element and organic contaminants in bed material and aquatic biota; (2) biological communities (algal, invertebrate, and fish); and (3) stream habitat characterization (Gurtz, 1994). A major design feature of the NAWQA program is the integration of water - quality information at different areal scales. The principal building blocks of the program are the study -unit investigations on which the national -level assessments are based. In 1991, the South Platte River Basin was among the first 20 NAWQA study units selected for investigation. The first step to the implementation of the bio- logical component of the South Platte NAWQA pro- gram was to examine existing biological information. Examination of existing data provides a historical per- spective to biological information about the basin, the strengths and deficiencies of available information, and the implications for water - quality issues. Purpose and Scope This report establishes an inventory of the bio- logical information for the South Platte River Basin from 1891 to 1994. The report also (1) identifies the sources of biological information for the South Platte River Basin, (2) categorizes this information in relation to the biological components of the NAWQA program, and (3) determines the information gaps in the basin. Biological information from 102 references from 1891 to 1994 were identified and divided into five assess- ment categories related to the biological components of the NAWQA program: (1) Algae, (2) invertebrates, (3) fish, (4) habitat characterization, and (5) chemicals in organism tissue. The category of habitat character- ization included studies of flood -plain vegetation and geomorphology. Many of the references in this report are a subset of references compiled from a computer- ized bibliographic search of 11 data bases using the DIALOG Information Retrieval Service through 1991, as described in detail in Dennehy and Abstract