Assessment of fish habitat impairment in U.S. reservoirs – Classification of reservoirs based on physical, chemical, morphological, physiographic, hydrologic, and landscape characteristics

There are many descriptors of reservoir basin features including physical, chemical, morphological, physiographic, hydrologic, and landscape characteristics that are likely to be related to reservoir fish habitat degradation.  A database is currently being developed to list the measures for these descriptors (with emphasis on those that can be managed) for reservoirs greater than 250 acres (100 hectares) across the United States.  National public databases are available through the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (National Inventory of Dams), U.S. Geological Survey (National Hydrography Dataset, SPARROW, and others), and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (Enhanced River Reach File).   Other databases are available through state and local agencies, and academic institutions.  Data from these sources will be aggregated into one, nationally consistent database, and used to classify reservoirs of similar setting (class), using multivariate ordination techniques.  Results will be combined with an independently developed database of reservoir impairment metrics to examine relations between reservoir basin feature descriptors and the impairment metrics