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Harvard Forest Symposium Abstract 2013

• Title: Aquatic Ecology in Headwater Streams
• Primary Author: Betsy Colburn (Harvard Forest)
• Abstract:

  Headwater streams have been described as the places “where rivers are born.” Many headwaters, including those at Harvard Forest, are tiny streams whose extent is not shown adequately on USGS topographic maps, and whose overall contributions to the larger river systems of which they are a part are not well documented. An important legal decision in 2006 by the US Supreme Court, the Rapanos/ Carabell decision, specified that headwaters that have a “significant nexus” to “navigable waters” are important in terms of meeting national goals for water quality protection under the Clean Water Act. The US EPA, US Army Corps of Engineers, and MA Department of Environmental Protection are attempting to define criteria for determining whether individual headwaters provide such a “significant nexus.” This research examines biological communities of headwater streams in northcentral Massachusetts in relation to hydrology, water quality, historic and current land use, vegetative cover, and other variables, in an attempt to quantify the significance of their contributions to biological diversity and ecosystem function of river systems.

• Research Category: Watershed Ecology