Aquatic Life Stressor Identification: Preliminary Data for Southeast Ohio

The data included in this report was derived as part of the basis for developing a stressor identification guide for Southeast Ohio.  The complete manual will provide step-by-step guidance to help scientists identify the key stressor impairing aquatic life in Southeast Ohio and should include information on fish assemblages, macroinvertebrates (at multiple scales of taxonomic resolution), and on algal assemblages. This report is a step towards that manual and provides initial baseline data and analytic approaches and tools that will eventually comprise an approach and tool box for a comprehensive assessment of factors limiting streams and rivers in Southeast Ohio.  The report includes: 1) weighted stressor and/or average stressor values (WSVs or ASVs) for fish and macroinvertebrates both statewide for the Western Allegheny Plateau (WAP) level III ecoregion; 2) tolerance indicator values (TIVs) for fish and macroinvertebrates; 3) data on fish and macroinvertebrates for each key stressor paired with presence/absence of each to generate logistic regression models; 4) smoothing curves to visually classify the shape and form of the response to each stressor; and 5) an estimate of the most sensitive and tolerant fish species and key stressors important to the mined areas of the WAP ecoregion that can form the basis for an atlas of stressor-response relationships between these species and key stressors.

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