Assessment of Aquatic Biological Communities Along a Gradient of Urbanization in the Willamette Valley Ecoregion, Oregon and Washington

Ian Waite, Kurt Carpenter, Andrew Arnsberg, Frank Rinella, Steve Sobieszczyk, Ian Wigger,

Curt Hughes and Mike Sarantou

National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program

Seattle

Sacramento

Raleigh

Atlanta

Portland

Denver

Dallas-Ft. Worth

Milwaukee-Green Bay

Salt Lake City Boston

Birmingham

NAWQA Urban Gradient Studies

Oregon

WillametteRiverValley

Willamette River Valley, Oregon

Willamette Urban Intensity IndexU

rban

In

dex

Urb

an I

nd

ex

Po

pu

lati

on

Den

sity

P

op

ula

tio

n D

ensi

ty

per

sq

mil

ep

er s

q m

ile

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27

Sites Ordered by Urban Index

0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

6000

Willamette Urban and Willamette Urban and AgAg

Willamette Willamette Valley Valley Ecoregion Ecoregion

Tickle Creek near Boring, Oregon

Urban Index = 32Urban Index = 32

Urban Streams

Claggett CreekAmazon Creek

Pringle Creek

Urban Index = 77 - 100Urban Index = 77 - 100

Water chemistry

Habitat

Algal

Invertebrate

Fish assemblages

Y-Axis Invertebrate Tolerance (Weighted Abundance)

Y-Axis Invertebrate Tolerance (Weighted Abundance)

R2 = 0.79

4

5

6

7

8

0 20 40 60 80 100

Urban Index

R2 = 0.79

4

5

6

7

8

0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5

Log(Sum_Pesticides*1000)

Y-Axis % Ephemeroptera Plecoptera Trichoptera Richness

R2 = -0.72

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

0 20 40 60 80 100

Urban Index

R2 = -0.82

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5

Log(Sum_Pesticides*1000)

nMDS Ordination of Invertebrate Density (Log X+1) w/ overlay of

Population Density

Amazo

BattlBeave

Cheha

Chick

Clagg

Curti

Deep

EFDar

Fanno Iler

Johns

Kello

LostMilk

Nate

NFDep

Nyamh

Oak

Pring

RocOR

RocWASalmo

Silk

Sscap

Tickl

Tryon

Whipp

2D Stress: 0.15

AXIS 1

AX

IS 2

What variables are related to the Ordination Axis 1?

R2 = 0.93

0

1

2

3

4

0 4 8 12 16 20

EPT Richness

Axi

s 1

Sco

res

R2 = -0.83

0

1

2

3

4

0 20 40 60 80 100

Urban Index

Axi

s 1

Sco

res

Plot of Population Density vs.% AG+Urban Land Use (%

disturbance)

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000

Population Density

% A

G+

Urb

an

La

nd

us

e

Transition

High Pop.Den Med/High AG+Urb

Low/Med Pop.Den High AG+Urb

Low AG+Urb

Multivariate Regression Tree (MRT: Primer) Linking Inverts to Environmental Data (coded by

%AG+Urban)

A: DO > 3.4 (< 2.5) TEQ < 1080 (>1120)

A

B

CH

D

TEQ, DO

and Sum_PEST

B: Sum_PEST

< 0.075 (> 0.087)

% AG+UrCategories

< 15 %

15 – 39

40 – 69

> 69 %

Nonparametric Regression Tree Linking Inverts to Environmental Data (coded by %AG+Urban)C: TEQ

D & E: DO F & G: Sum_PEST B

G

F

E

C

I

H

J

K

L

D

A

H: TEQ

I: DO

J: Sum_PEST

K: TEQ

L: Sum_PEST

% Fish Metric Includes 4 Metrics

% Salmonids % Native (other species) % Reticulate Sculpin % Introduced or Exotic

0

20

40

60

80

100

0 20 40 60 80 100

Urban Index

Fish

Met

ric

(%)

0

20

40

60

80

100

0 20 40 60 80 100 120

% Dissolved Oxygen

Fis

h M

etri

c (%

)

po

or

co

nd

itio

np

oo

r c

on

dit

ion% Fish Metric Includes 4 Metrics

% Salmonids % Native (other species) % Reticulate Sculpin % Introduced or Exotic

“What do you mean cooties, no cooties on

me.”FZ

Exotic Species

nMDS Ordination of Fish Abundance (Log

X+1) with overlay of Population Density

popden00

600

2.4E3

4.2E3

6E3

Battle

Beaverton

Chehalem

Chicken

Claggett

Curtin

Deep

EFDairyFanno

Iler

Johnson

Kellogg

LostMilk

NF Deep

Nate

Nyamhill

Oak

Pringle

RockOR

RockWA

Salmon

Silk

Sscappoose

Tickle

TryonWhipple

Stress: 0.16

600

2400

4200

6000

per sq mile

Preliminary CONCLUSIONS

Fish showed a linear response as urban intensity increases based on individual metrics

% E

PT R

ich

ness

Invertebrates showed a smooth threshold for some metrics at Urban Index values of ~25 or < 5-10% Impervious

R2 = -0.72

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

0 20 40 60 80 100

Urban Index

Invertebrate RTH (Density-Log(X+1)

2D Stress: 0.15

Preliminary CONCLUSIONS Flashiness of urban stream flows usually related to % impervious does not seem to be the dominate factor affecting the biological assemblages in the Willamette Valley

Biotic assemblages were strongly related to differences in WQ among sites (e.g., TEQ, Pesticides, DO, and Water Temp.) likely due to Urban and AG land use disturbances – either singularly or in combination.

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000

Population Density

% A

G+

Urb

an

La

nd

us

e

High Pop.Den & High AG+Urb

High AG+Urb & Low/Med Pop.Den

Low Pop.Den & Low AG+Urb

Little difference found in fish and inverts between High AG+Urban (% disturbance) and High Population Density sites

Preliminary CONCLUSIONS

Preliminary CONCLUSIONS

Prediction of invertebrate metrics at unsampled sites using the urban index will be attempted using EPA and/or ODEQ sites in Willamette Valley – still amassing the data

% E

PT R

ich

ness

R2 = -0.72

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

0 20 40 60 80 100

Urban Index

Evaluating the Effects of Urbanization on Water Quality I – II

Concurrent Session F & G: Tues. 1 – 5 pm

Panel DiscussionEffects of Urbanization on Streams

Tuesday 7:00-9:00 pm Meeting Room A8, SJ Convention Center

Contact Info: Ian Waite iwaite@usgs.gov, 503-251-3463

nMDS Ordination of Invertebrate Density Sites coded by %AG+Urban

%AG+UrCategories

< 15 %

15 – 39

40 – 69

> 69 %

Invertebrate RTH (Density-Log(X+1)

2D Stress: 0.15

AXIS 1

AX

IS 2

0

10

20

30

40

50

0 20 40 60 80 100

Urban Intensity

Res

po

nse

Va

riab

le

Hypothetical response to increasing urban intensity…..threshold or linear or none?

Minimum threshold

Maximum threshold

Resistance

Population Density% Impervious 0.98

% Urban 0.98

Road Den. 0.95

Urban Index 0.98

Mean Watershed Elev. -0.88

Watershed Slope -0.81

3 Flow Stats 0.73

DOC 0.70, SO4 0.71

TN 0.81, TP 0.73

Pest. Tox. Index_Summer 0.70

Sum_Insecticide 0.70

TEQ 0.79

Environmental Variables usually surrogates for

many processes