Publications—Water-Resources Investigations Report 01–4161
By David S. Armstrong, Todd A. Richards, and Gene W. Parker
U.S. Geological Survey Water–Resources Investigations Report 01–4161
Prepared in cooperation with the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Management; Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection; and the Massachusetts Department of Fisheries, Wildlife, and Environmental Law Enforcement, Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife
This report is available in Portable Document Format (PDF):
Cover (370 KB) - 1 page
Inside cover (15 KB) - 3 pages
Contents (118 KB) - 4 pages
Body of Report (2.7 MB) - 72 pages
Appendix A (1.1 MB) - 39 pages
Appendixes B-D (123 KB)- 40 pages
The relations among stream habitat, fish communities, and
hydrologic conditions were investigated in the Ipswich River Basin in
northeastern Massachusetts. Data were assessed from 27 sites on the mainstem of
the Ipswich River from July to September 1998 and from 10 sites on 5 major
tributaries in July and August 1999. Habitat assessments made in 1998 determined
that in a year with sustained streamflow for most of the summer, the Ipswich
River contains diverse, high-quality aquatic habitat. Channel types are
predominantly low gradient glides, pools, and impoundments, with a sandy
streambed and a forest or shrub riparian zone. Features that provide fish
habitat are located mostly along stream margins; these features include
overhanging brush, undercut banks, exposed roots, and woody debris. These
habitat features decrease in availability to aquatic communities with declining
streamflows and generally become unavailable after streamflows drop to the point
where the edge of water recedes from the stream banks.
The mainstem and tributaries were sampled to determine fish
species composition, relative abundance, and length frequency. Fish sampling
indicates that the fish community in the Ipswich River is currently a warm-water
fish community dominated by pond-type fish. However, historical temperature
data, and survival of stocked trout in the mainstem Ipswich into late summer of
1998, indicate that the Ipswich River potentially could support cold-water fish
species if adequate flows are maintained. Dominant fish species sampled in the
mainstem Ipswich River were redfin pickerel (Esox americanus), American eel (Anguilla
rostrata), and pumpkinseed (Lepomis gibbosus), which together represented 41,
22, and 10 percent, respectively, of 4,745 fish sampled. The fish communities of
the mainstem and tributaries contained few fluvial-dependent or
fluvial-specialist species (requiring flow), and were dominated by macrohabitat
generalists (tolerant of low-flow, warm-water, and ponded conditions). In
comparison to a nearby river (Lamprey River, N.H.), and a reference fish
community developed for inland New England streams, the Ipswich fish community
would be expected to have appreciably higher percentages of fluvial-dependent
and fluvial-specialist species were streamflows restored.
Four riffle sites on the mainstem of the Ipswich River were
identified as critical habitat areas because they are among the first sites to
exhibit fish-passage problems or to dry during low flows. A watershed-scale
precipitation-runoff model previously developed for the Ipswich River was used
to simulate streamflows at these four sites for the period 196195 under no
withdrawals (for water supply) and 1991 land use to evaluate habitat suitability
under conditions that approximate the natural flow conditions. These simulated
flows were used to calculate streamflow requirements by the Tennant and New
England Aquatic-Base-Flow methods. Stream channels were surveyed at the critical
riffle sites, and Water Surface Profile models were used to simulate streamflows
and hydraulic characteristics needed for determining streamflow requirements by
use of the Wetted-Perimeter and R2Cross methods. Normalized by drainage area to
units of cubic feet per second per square mile, these methods yielded the
following streamflow requirements: 0.50 cubic feet per second per square mile
for the Tennant 30-percent QMA method, 0.42 cubic feet per second per square
mile for the wetted-perimeter value necessary to maintain wetted perimeter at
three altered riffle sites, 0.42 cubic feet per second per square mile for the
R2Cross value required to maintain R2Cross hydraulic criteria at a natural
riffle site, and 0.34 cubic feet per second per square mile for the
aquatic-base-flow median of monthly mean flows for August for the simulated
196195 period under no withdrawals and 1991 land use. The mean streamflow
requirement determined from these four methods is 0.42 cubic feet per second per
square mile. This flow would represent an average flow-exceedence value for the
six study sites of about 77 percent under simulated flows with no withdrawals.
For these flows, the 70-, 80-, and 90-percent exceedence flows averaged 0.59,
0.37, and 0.21 cubic feet per second per square mile, respectively, and the
7-day, 10-year low flow statistic at the two gaged sites averaged 0.08 cubic
feet per second per square mile. Simulated flows under no withdrawals were used
to determine monthly mean flows and other flow statistics used in the Range of
Variability Approach to define a flow regime that mimics the river's natural
flow regime.
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Suggested Citation: Armstrong, D.S., Richards, T.A., and Parker, G.W., 2001, Assessment of Habitat, Fish Communities, and Streamflow Requirements for Habitat Protection, Ipswich River, Massachusetts, 1998-99: U.S. Geological Survey Water-Resources Investigations Report 01-4161, 72 p.
For additional information write to:
Director,
USGS Massachusetts–Rhode Island Water Science Center
10 Bearfoot Road
Northborough, MA 01532or visit our Web site at
http://ma.water.usgs.gov
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