Water-Quality Assessment of the Sacramento River Basin, California: Water-Quality, Sediment and Tissue Chemistry, and Biological Data, 1995-1998 (Open-File Report 2000-391)

Ecological Sites

McCloud River below Ladybug Creek near McCloud, California
Deer Creek at Potato Patch Campground near Jonesville, California
Deer Creek at Cohasset Ridge Road near Campbellville, California
Deer Creek below Standard Pacific Railroad Bridge near Vina, California
Deer Creek near Vina, California
Big Chico Creek at Soda Springs Campground near Butte Meadows, California
Big Chico Creek near Forest Ranch, California
Big Chico Creek at Upper Park Golf Course at Chico, California
Big Chico Creek at Chico, California
Butte Creek at Cherry Hill Campground near Jonesville, California
Butte Creek at Doe Mill Road near Stirling City, California
Butte Creek at Honey Run Road near Paradise, California
Butte Creek at Durnel Road near Nelson, California
Butte Creek at Biggs Princeton Road near Afton, California
Butte Creek at Laux Road near Meridian, California
Sacramento River at Colusa, California
Yuba River near Marysville, California
Feather River near Nicolaus, California
Cache Creek at Guinda, California
Colusa Basin Drain at Road 99E near Knights Landing, California
East Canal at Kirkville Road near Nicolaus, California
Arcade Creek near Del Paso Heights, California
American River at Sacramento, California

Map showing ecological sampling locations in the Sacramento
River basin.

The ecological studies component of the NAWQA program are used to help assess water quality conditions at sites with different land-use characteristics. Information on biological communities and habitat characteristics contributes to the conceptual model of factors that affect water quality and to improved understanding of the relations among physical, chemical, and biological characteristics of streams (Gurtz, 1994).

Ecological sampling sites on the watersheds of Deer Creek, Big Chico, and Butte Creek were sampled as part of an ecological synoptic survey. This synoptic survey was intended to characterize the gradient of physical habitat and water-quality conditions from the high elevation Sierra Nevada down to the low elevation Sacramento Valley. Additionally, the Mcloud River sampling sites was intended to provide an intensive investigation of least- impacted or reference conditions for other sites within the basin. The sites located lower in the basin, Sacramento River, Feather River, American River, Yuba River Cache Creek, Colusa Basin Drain, East Canal, and Arcade Creek, were sampled in an attempt to look at correlations with the surface water investigations and the aquatic ecology over multiple land use types.

Sampling areas are generally referred to as "reaches", but for most sites there is only one reach. At two sites designated multiyear/multireach (MY/MR) sites there are three reaches labeled A, B, and C sampled in 1996; these additional sampling areas (reaches) are for the purposes of assessing spatial variability within the biotic communities at a site.

For the macroinvertebrate and algal (periphyton) data sets there are both quantitative and qualitative data available here. Quantitative data are available in two forms. Samples that were collected from riffles in wadeable streams and/or samples collected from woody debris (snags) in nonwadeable streams are referred to as the "richest targeted habitat" (RTH) samples. The second type of quantitative data are only available for the algal (periphyton) data and these are collections from "depositional targeted habitats" (DTH). Additionally, qualitative multihabitat (QMH) samples were collected for both macroinvertebrates and algal (periphyton) from some of the sites to gain a better understanding of the overall species composition at a site. For a more thorough explanation of sample types and collection methods, please see: Cuffney and others 1993a and Porter and others 1993.

The quantitative algal (periphyton) data requires some explanation. Biovolume per cell is the average volume of an algal cell of a given species. Biovolumes are estimated by measuring specified dimensions of a number of cells of a given species. These measurements are then used to calculate a volume for each cell, and a number of volumes are then averaged. Only species comprising at least 5 per cent of the algal cells counted in at least one sample are measured for biovolumes. Biovolumes are not calculated for taxa more rare than this. Biovolume per square centimeter is the sum of the biovolumes of all cells divided by the area sampled. Note that this "total biovolume density" is only approximate because we don't have biovolumes for all species. Cells per square centimeter is the density of algal cells, the total number of cells divided by the area sampled.

Available water quality data for ecological sites are also provided.

Fish, macroinvertebrate, and algal (periphyton) community data are available for downloading from this page. All data are in compressed (zip) format. The uncompressed files are Microsoft excel workbooks containing worksheets for each type of data set available. The files must be uncompressed using the appropriate software.

McCloud River below Ladybug Creek near McCloud, California

This is a multiyear/multireach (MY/MR) site.
Available data: