Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units Program: Virginia
Education, Research and Technical Assistance for Managing Our Natural Resources

PROJECT DESCRIPTION: A key scientific gap in stream restoration is understanding and predicting how effects of management efforts propagate through watersheds, then influence the in-stream habitat conditions that determine macroinvertebrate and fish responses. This mechanistic view is required to provide USGS partners with the information they need to revise management strategies. The goal of this project is to provide an integrated and detailed understanding of how stream ecosystems respond to management efforts. It is part of larger study funded by USGS’s Priority Ecosystems Science program to inform adaptive management of the Chesapeake Bay basin. The larger study is being conducted by a large multidisciplinary team (“Stream Team”) of USGS and academic scientists.
This project focuses on collecting and analyzing the biological data that feed into the larger synthesis by the Stream Team regarding BMP efficacy. The Stream Team will collect a standardized suite of stream ecosystem data to link BMPs and land-use change in small watersheds to responses of individual reaches and the biota living there. By sampling across broad gradients of BMP implementation and land use – and across distinct geographic settings – we will model effects of collective management actions on stream habitats, macroinvertebrates, and fishes in the Chesapeake basin. We will measure organismal responses at multiple organizational levels, including whole macroinvertebrate and fish communities, selected multi-species functional groups, selected fish populations, and individuals of selected fish species.
OBJECTIVES:
1. Quantify responses of macroinvertebrate and fish communities along gradients of land use and BMP implementation in selected geographic settings;
2. Identify biotic attributes at community and population levels of organization that seem especially useful in assessing BMP efficacy;
3. Disentangle effects of land use, BMPs, and selected physicochemical factors (e.g., physical habitat, water quality) on macroinvertebrate and fish communities; and
4. Compare the relative importance of these effects among selected geographic settings.PROJECT DESCRIPTION: A key scientific gap in stream restoration is understanding and predicting how effects of management efforts propagate through watersheds, then influence the in-stream habitat conditions that determine macroinvertebrate and fish responses. This mechanistic view is required to provide USGS partners with the information they need to revise management strategies. The goal of this project is to provide an integrated and detailed understanding of how stream ecosystems respond to management efforts. It is part of larger study funded by USGS’s Priority Ecosystems Science program to inform adaptive management of the Chesapeake Bay basin. The larger study is being conducted by a large multidisciplinary team (“Stream Team”) of USGS and academic scientists.
This project focuses on collecting and analyzing the biological data that feed into the larger synthesis by the Stream Team regarding BMP efficacy. The Stream Team will collect a standardized suite of stream ecosystem data to link BMPs and land-use change in small watersheds to responses of individual reaches and the biota living there. By sampling across broad gradients of BMP implementation and land use – and across distinct geographic settings – we will model effects of collective management actions on stream habitats, macroinvertebrates, and fishes in the Chesapeake basin. We will measure organismal responses at multiple organizational levels, including whole macroinvertebrate and fish communities, selected multi-species functional groups, selected fish populations, and individuals of selected fish species.
OBJECTIVES:
1. Quantify responses of macroinvertebrate and fish communities along gradients of land use and BMP implementation in selected geographic settings;
2. Identify biotic attributes at community and population levels of organization that seem especially useful in assessing BMP efficacy;
3. Disentangle effects of land use, BMPs, and selected physicochemical factors (e.g., physical habitat, water quality) on macroinvertebrate and fish communities; and
4. Compare the relative importance of these effects among selected geographic settings.