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Summary:
The influence of landscape features (both anthropogenic and geophysical)
on in-stream water quality and on biological integrity is recognized. Evidence from this
research indicates that the overall influence of landscapes on water quality is
regulated by at least two elements:
interactions between landscape
features within the catchment spatial scale considerations A systematic
examination of both the spatial scale and the interactions between these various
landscape features may be useful in developing an overarching understanding of the
relationship between land cover and in-stream water quality and possibly on aquatic
life as well. EPA has recognized the role of landscape influences by
developing water quality criteria based on geographic boundaries
(e.g., ecoregions). This project seeks to verify the validity of spatially based water
quality criteria and explore whether this concept can be applied to biological
endpoints (e.g., benthic macroinvertebrate assemblages).
Objective:
The central objective
is elucidation of interactions
among various landscape features and the most important stressors and/or services
which suppress and/or support aquatic life(e.g., nutrient levels, turbidity, physical habitat, canopy cover, allochthonous
energy, etc.) in order to
understand the linkage between land cover and in-stream biological integrity.
Three questions are under consideration in this project:
- How do various types of landscape influences (anthropomorphic versus geological)
interact to increase or decrease nutrient stresses to streams?
- What is the influence of spatial scale on the regulation/modulation of these
processes and their interactions?
- Which of these landscape features (or combination of landscape features)
are most critical to the regulation of water quality (and/or stream biological integrity)?
Projects:
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