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Cathy M. Tate

Publications and source records attributed to Cathy M. Tate.

6 recordsLinked to original sources
USGS2013

The quality of our Nation’s waters--Ecological health in the Nation's streams, 1993-2005

This report summarizes a national assessment of the ecological health of streams done by the U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) National Water-Quality Assessment Program (NAWQA). Healthy functioning stream ecosystems provide society with many benefits, including water purification, flood control, nutrient recycling, waste decomposition, fisheries, and aesthetics. The value to society of many of these benefits is substantial; for example, sportfishing in the United States generates an estimated annual economic output of $125 billion, including more than 1 million jobs (National Research Council, 2005; American Sportfishing Association, 2008). Continued monitoring and assessment of the Nation’s streams is needed to support informed decisions that will safeguard this important natural and economic resource. The quality of streams and rivers is often assessed with measures of the chemical or physical properties of water. However, a more comprehensive perspective is obtained if resident biological communities are also assessed. Guidelines to protect human health and aquatic life have been established for specific physical and chemical properties of water and have become useful yardsticks with which to assess water quality. Biological communities provide additional crucial information because they live within streams for weeks to years and therefore integrate through time the effects of changes to their chemical or physical environment. In addition, biological communities are a direct measure of stream health—an indicator of the ability of a stream to support aquatic life. Thus, the condition of biological communities, integrated with key physical and chemical properties, provides a comprehensive assessment of stream health.

conterminous United States↗
USGS2007

South Platte River Basin - Colorado, Nebraska, and Wyoming

The South Platte River Basin was one of 20 study units selected in 1991 for investigation under the U.S. Geological Survey's National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) program. One of the initial tasks undertaken by the study unit team was to review the environmental setting of the basin and assemble ancillary data on natural and anthropogenic factors in the basin. The physical, chemical, and biological quality of the water in the South Platte River Basin is explicitly tied to its environmental setting. The resulting water quality is the product of the natural conditions and human factors that make up the environmental setting of the basin. This description of the environmental setting of the South Platte River Basin and its implications to the water quality will help guide the design of the South Platte NAWQA study. Natural conditions such as physiography, climate, geology, and soils affect the ambient water quality while anthropogenic factors such as water use, population, land use and water-management practices can have a pronounced effect on water quality in the basin. The relative effects of mining, urban, and agricultural land- and water-uses on water-quality constituents are not well understood. The interrelation of the surface-water and ground-water systems and the chemical and biological processes that affect the transport of constituents needs to be addressed. Interactions between biological communities and the water resources also should be considered. The NAWQA program and the South Platte River Basin study will provide information to minimize existing knowledge gaps, so that we may better understand the effect these natural conditions and human factors have on the water-quality conditions in the basin, now and in the future.

Water Resources Bulletin↗
USGS2003

Phosphate dynamics in an acidic mountain stream: Interactions involving algal uptake, sorption by iron oxide, and photoreduction

Acid mine drainage streams in the Rocky Mountains typically have few algal species and abundant iron oxide deposits which can sorb phosphate. An instream injection of radiolabeled phosphate (32P0,) into St. Kevin Gulch, an acid mine drainage stream, was used to test the ability of a dominant algal species, Ulothrix sp., to rapidly assimilate phosphate. Approximately 90% of the injected phosphate was removed from the water column in the 175-m stream reach. When shaded stream reaches were exposed to full sunlight after the injection ended, photoreductive dissolution of iron oxide released sorbed 32P, which was then also removed downstream. The removal from the stream was modeled as a first-order process by using a reactive solute transport transient storage model. Concentrations of 32P mass-’ of algae were typically lo-fold greater than concentrations in hydrous iron oxides. During the injection, concentrations of 32P increased in the cellular P pool containing soluble, low-molecular-weight compounds and confirmed direct algal uptake of 32P0, from water. Mass balance calculations indicated that algal uptake and sorption on iron oxides were significant in removing phosphate. We conclude that in stream ecosystems, PO, sorbed by iron oxides can act as a dynamic nutrient reservoir regulated by photoreduction.

Colorado↗
USGS1995

Fish communities in the plains region of the South Platte River, August 1993 and 1994

As part of the U.S. Geological Survey National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) program, fish communities were sampled at five sites in the South Platte River from Denver, Colo rado, to North Platte, Nebraska. The number and composition of fish species changed from upstream to downstream in the South Platte River. The total number of fish collected at each site varied among sites and from year to year.

Fact Sheet↗
USGS1995

Inventory of biological investigations related to stream water quality in the South Platte River basin, Colorado, Nebraska, and Wyoming, 1891-1994

An inventory of the biological investigations conducted in the South Platte River Basin from 1891 to 1994 was done as a part of the U.S. Geological Survey's National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) program in the South Platte River Basin. To aid in the sampling design of the biological component of the South Platte NAWQA, sources of water-related studies were compiled from computerized literature searches of biological data bases and by contacting other Federal, State, and local agencies. Biological investigations were categorized by their location in either of two major physiographic provinces-the Southern Rocky Mountains or the Great Plains, or in the transition zone between the mountains and the plains. From this collection of 102 references, five general categories of biological investigations were identified: algae, invertebrates, fish, habitat characterization, and chemicals in organism tissue. The most abundant literature was on studies of invertebrate and fish communities. Invertebrate studies primarily were conducted in the mountain region. There was limited information on algae, invertebrates in the plains region, flood-plain vegetation in the mountains and transition zone, and chemicals in organism tissue.

Open-File Report↗