Surface water hydrological features
show the major rivers, tributaries, and reservoirs of the study unit.
Cities mentioned in the report are shown on this link.
Land use, geologic characteristics,
ecological regions,
basin boundaries, soil map, and
physiography links contains land-use and geologic/hydrologic
descriptions of the Sacramento River Basin in map form. Physiographic boundaries are based
on geological definition. Ecological regions do not necessarily correspond to physiographic
or geological definitions but may have the same or similar names.
Sampling approaches and sampling stations gives a quick and easy
view of what types of sampling approaches were used at each stream. Use this table to locate
specific streams or stations to help find the data under the chemical, physical, and
biological measurements section.
Analyte lists are provided for ground water, stream
water, streambed sediments and aquatic biological tissues. These
tables of analyte lists also show the reporting limit for each analyte. Reporting limits may
change over time, so the limits shown in the tables may not be the same as those shown in the
subsequent data tables for nondetection values. Unless otherwise indicated, measured
constituents are from filtered water samples. Concentrations for constituents measured in
streambed sediment and the tissues of aquatic organisms are reported on a dry-weight basis.
Most analytes were measured at the National Water Quality Laboratory (NWQL) of the U.S.
Geological Survey. The exceptions are the mercury and methylmercury measurements for surface
water sites, select trace metals measured as part of the
Sacramento River Trace Metals Study, and the pesticides measured by gas chromatography/ion
trap mass spectrometry (Sacramento laboratory). Mercury and methylmercury samples were
analyzed by the U.S. Geological Survey mercury research laboratory in Madison, Wisconsin
according to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Methods 1630 and 1631. Those methods are
based on the method of Bloom and Fitzgerald (1987) for mercury in unfiltered water analysis
and the method of Horvat and others (1993) and Liang and others (1993) for methylmercury in
unfiltered water analysis. Full citations are available in the Selected
References. Details of the metals analysis for the
Sacramento River Trace Metals Study are available in that part of the report. The
pesticides measured by gas chromatography/ion trap mass spectrometry were measured at the
U.S. Geological Survey organic chemistry research laboratory in Sacramento, California.
Method documentation is listed in the Selected References page
(Crepeau and others, 1994).
Hydrological and water quality data are available for viewing (html tables) and as
downloadable (tab-delimited) files. For some types of data, such as mean daily discharge,
downloadable (tab-delimited) files are only provided because of the large size of those files.
Ground-water site locations and stream
site locations, give the description and location of each ground-water and stream site sampled.
Maps of sampling locations are shown with the corresponding data links.
Streamflow data are provided as downloadable files. These data were retrieved from either
U.S. Geological Survey records, or in some cases, from the California Department of Water
Resources. Ground water levels, at time of sampling, are also provided.
Aquatic biota (fish, macroinvertebrates, and algae (periphyton) community characteristics
are included in the ecological data section. Biotic communities were sampled at some
integrator and indicator stream sites but mostly at ecological synoptic sites. Aquatic
biota data from sampling sites are downloadable in a Microsoft (MS) Excel workbook format.
The workbooks are compressed in zip format and must be uncompressed using appropriate
software. Each workbook contains worksheets displaying each year and type of collection.
Additionally, there are data for each sampling reach or collection area. Generally, there
is only one sampling reach per site and year; the exception for this is sites designated as
multiyear sampling sites that are intended to assess the degree of variability within a
sampling site. Fish-community characteristics excel worksheets include: The reach (or
collection area), sampling date, common and scientific names, total and standard length,
weight, abundance, and method of collection. Macroinvertebrate community data consist of
excel worksheets displaying typical taxonomic hierarchy: The reach sampled, phylum, class,
order, suborder, family, subfamily, tribe, genus, species, taxonomic identification (BU ID),
life stage, and abundance in sample. Algae (periphyton) community data consist of excel
worksheets displaying typical taxonomic hierarchy: algae group, phylum, family, genus, species,
quantity, and cell biovolume. The date of collection and format of sample collection, and
the sample type are also listed in these fields.
Quality-control stream water and ground-water data include blank, replicate, spike, and,
where applicable, associated environmental data.
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