California Stream Condition and Multiple Biological Assemblages

Project Chief: Larry Brown and Jason May

The California Department of Fish and Game's Aquatic Bioassessment Lab (ABL) has been involved in a cooperative agreement with the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for the last 5 years as a participant in the EPA's Western Environmental Monitoring Assessment Program (EMAP) Pilot. The ABL has collected samples of stream habitat, water chemistry, mercury in fish muscle tissue, as well as community assessments of benthic algae (periphyton), benthic macroinvertebrates (BMIs), and fish and amphibians from over 250 sites statewide. The ABL has the expertise to develop indicators and regional assessments based on BMIs, but lacks the expertise to include fish and amphibians in a multi-assemblage assessment. The ABL has requested assistance from USGS California Water Science Center (USGS-CWSC) staff Dr. Larry Brown and Jason May to help with the development of a multi-assemblage based assessment of ecological condition in California streams and rivers. The objectives of the proposed project are:

1) Conduct regional and state-wide analyses of potential vertebrate indicators (i.e., metrics) proposed by the National EMAP for the assessment of streams in the Western United States to determine if they should be included in one or more V-IBIs for California streams.
2) If analyses identify useful vertebrate indicators then develop state-wide or regional V-IBIs as appropriate.
3) Analyze relationships between vertebrate indicators and BMI indicators and, if appropriate, combine the two types of indicators in a multi-assemblage index.
4) Analyze relationships between the final set of indicators and indices and anthropogenic stressor gradients (i.e. land use, etc.).

Contact Information

Larry Brown and Jason May
Office phone: 916-278-3000

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