8217

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 8217
• Author: U.S. Geological Survey
• Title: Upper Colorado River Basin NAWQA Factsheet
• USFW Year: 1997
• USFW - Doc Type: Biological anc Contaminant Investigations, Upper Colorado River Basin-What's Been Done and How Can the Information Be Used?
• Copyright Material: NO

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Biological and Contaminant Investigations, Upper Colorado River Basin-
What's Been Done and How Can the Information Be Used?

-Jeffrey R. Deacon
As part of the U.S. Geological Survey's National Water-Quality Assessment (NA WQA) program, an inventory
of biological and contaminant investigations was conducted for the Upper Colorado River Basin (UCOL) study
unit. Investigations conducted in the basin since 1938 were identified and categorized. The resulting information
can be used to design biological sampling strategies to fill gaps in the biological and contaminant data and to
effectively address water-quality issues in the UCOL study unit.

INTRODUCTION

The NA WQA program is designed to integrate physical,
chemical, and biological components to assess water quality in
60 river basins nationwide. The biological component of this
program focuses on: (1) Biological communities (algae, macro-
invertebrates, and fish); (2) stream habitat characterizations; and
(3) trace-element and organic contaminants in aquatic tissues
and bed sediment (Gurtz, 1994). Existing biological and contami-
nant information was inventoried as the first step for implementa-
tion of the biological component of the NA WQA program
for the VCOL study unit. The inventory of the historical data
indicated the types of biological information available for the
basin, the gaps in this information, and the implications for
water-quality issues. Hydrology, climate, geology, topography,
and land use vary substantially within the VCOL study unit and
directly affect stream biology in the study unit. Therefore, these
natural and human factors (Apodaca and others, 1996) were
important in the information inventory.

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Number and type of biological investigations in comparison to the
physiographic provinces.

BIOLOGICAL AND CONTAMINANT
INVESTIGATIONS

Four categories of biological investigations (algal, macro-
invertebrate, and fish communities and habitat characterization),
and two categories of contaminant investigations (contaminants in
organism tissue and contaminants in bed sediment) were included
in the biological inventory. One-hundred-twenty-six investigations
were compiled and categorized. The studies were categorized by
their locations in two physiographic provinces, the Southern Rocky
Mountains and the Colorado Plateau, and by the predominant land
use in the area of investigation. A more detailed description of the
historical, biological, and contaminant investigations; information
on biological communities; gaps in biological information; and
land-use effects on biological communities in the study unit is in
Deacon and Stephens (1996).

Studies on macroinvertebrate and fish communities and habitat
characterization were the most common types of biological investiga-
tions conducted in the basin. Few studies have been conducted on
algal communities and contaminants in organism tissue and in bed
sediment in the VCOL.
The physiographic provinces in the study unit differ greatly
in altitude, climate, vegetation, and geologic formations. The
diverse habitats provide for a variety of aquatic biological commu-
nities. The Southern Rocky Mountains physiographic province