Focus Area - Aquatic Habitat

Importance to the CORPS
Background Information
Indicators
Trends
Sources of Data
Laws, policies, regulations and plans
Stakeholders
Keywords

The CORPS concern for Aquatic habitats stems from their involvement in ecosystem restoration and protection through the Civil Works programs and activities, such as ER 1110-2-8154, Water Quality and Environmental Management at the Corps Civil Works Projects, and ER 1165-2-28, Corps of Engineers Participation in Improvements for Environmental Quality.

Aquatic Habitats are the ecosystems found in water.The aquatic habitats most often of interest to the Corps are those in rivers, lakes, flood plains, wetlands, estuaries and in other coastal regions. Habitats are the portion of the ecosystem in which organisms live, therefore in the analysis of an aquatic habitat includes the water in which the organisms live and the land that interfaces the water.

Aquatic habitats change due to the many uses humans have for water and the land that surrounds the water. When rivers are dammed the shallow benthic regions are made deep and new benthic region are formed. River banks are straightened often increasing the velocity of the flowing water causing sediment deposition to occur in new locations. Water chemistry is also changed as pesticides, herbicides and limiting nutrients are washed in to the water in the natural drainage process. Altering the chemistry can influence the organisms living in the habitat which in turn can alter the chemistry, such as an algal bloom causing the growth of zooplankton which then deplete the water of dissolved oxygen.

The introduction of exotic plants and a change in the biodiversity can indirectly change the aquatic habitat.

There are several methods for indicating the health or condition of an aquatic habitat.Many methods form around larger lake and reservoir systems, such as the Great Lakes and the Tennessee Valley Reservoir system.

Indicators of aquatic habitat include components of the habitat itself and the organisms that live in it.

EPA's Biological Indicators of Watershed Health
http://www.epa.gov/ceisweb1/ceishome/atlas/bioindicators/biologicalindicators.html

A presentation from the SOLEC 98 conference from a representative of the Coastal Wetland Indicator Core Group
http://www.epa.gov/grtlakes/solec/98/present/wetlands/index.html

 Indicators of Reservoir Ecological Condition as used by the The Tennessee Valley Authority 
http://nwqmc.site.net/98proceedings/Papers/45-DYCU.html

EPA's index of Watershed Indicators
http://www.epa.gov/iwi/

USGS Leetown Ecological Research Centers
http://www.lsc.usgs.gov/lsc-home40.htm

Selection of Indicators for Great Lakes Basin Ecosystem Health
http://www.epa.gov/glnpo/solec/98/indicators/

EPA's Wetland Bioassessment Fact Sheets
http://www.epa.gov/owow/wetlands/wqual/bio_fact/index.html

These include the

• Water Quality/Water Chemistry (Dissolved Oxygen Concentrations       (DO), Chlorophyll a concentration
• Surface Sediments
• Benthos
• Fish population 

WATERSHED INFORMATION RESOURCE SYSTEM
(WIRS) DATABASE

The WIRS Database is an online resource center for information on lake and watershed restoration, protection and management. WIRS may be accessed -- and searched for specific information -- on the Internet at http://www.terrene.org.

The WIRAS database - as recommended by the EPA Office of Water
http://www.terrene.org/wirsdata.htm

EPA's Office of Wetlands, Oceans and Watersheds
http://www.epa.gov/owow/

From the Legal Information Institute at Cornell Law School 

• United States Code
  • TITLE 16 - CONSERVATION
• Chapter 58. Erodible Land and Wetland Conservation and Reserve Program
• Chapter 59. Wetlands Resources
• Chapter 59A. Wetlands

Library of Congress  
http://thomas.loc.gov/

The Aquatic habitat plan for the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta
http://www.regis.berkeley.edu/dpcdocs/adptpln.html

M&I users, recreationalists, species (environmental groups), irrigators, point pollution, non-point pollution

Aquatic ecosystems, aquatic restoration, aquatic ecology, streambank erosion, aquatic habitat, bank protection, streambank stabilization, fluvial geomorphology, USEPA