 Standard River Code & RM  Stream Name  New Station ID  Location Description  Date  Scorer  Lat/Long QHEI Header

 Identify Two Predominant Substrate Types ◦ By Amount or Function  Two boxes in case one type is only dominant type (e.g., bedrock)  Lines after boxes for checking or estimating % of all substrate types present  Pebble count procedure provides good training for assessment of substrate

Substrate Size Categories  Boulder: > 10”  Boulders as slabs: flat rather than round pieces  Cobble: 2.5” to 10”  Gravel: 1/12” to 2.5” (note wide range)  Sand: gritty texture  Silt: greasy texture, inorganic  Muck: decayed organic material  Detritus: leaves, sticks, wood  Hardpan: usually clay, hard gummy surface

 Substrate Diversity ◦ Number of substrate types  More substrate types = more “niches”  Many fish and macroinvertebrate species are associate with specific substrate types  Substrate Origin ◦ Informational ◦ From where did the substrates originate?  Bedrock, tills, alluvial sediments, colluvial sediments?

Substrate Origin  Limestone: Often contains fossils, easily scratched with knife, usually bedrock or flat boulders and cobbles  Tills: Sediments deposited by glaciers; particles often rounded. Can be carried into non- glaciated areas  Wetlands: Usually organic muck and detritus  Hardpan: Clay – smooth, usually slippery  Sandstone: Contains rounded fragment of sand “cemented” together  Rip/Rap: Artificial boulders  Lacustrine: Old lake bed sediments  Shale: “Claystone,” sedimentary rock made of silt/clay, soft and cleaves easily  Coal Fines: Black fragments of coal, generally SE Ohio only

 Wolman Pebble Count  Zig-Zag Pebble Count  Riffle Stability Index  Others

 Pervuasiveness of silt cover & embeddedness  Smother habitats  Reduce oxygen penetration  Fines fill interstitial spaces

 Sands, other fines cover larger substrates  “Dunes” indicate high bedload  Can often dig down to larger substrates

 Import of fines > export  Results in “aggradation of sediments in riffles and pools  Symptom can be “spongy” deposits of sands and fine gravels that smother larger riffle particles

High Embeddedness: “Fish-eye View”

Substrate Embeddedness

Fish IBI

 Affects overall community structure  Decrease substrate quality leads to loss of sensitive species  Decreasing substrate quality leads to increase in omnivores  Decrease substrate quality leads to decrease in many sport fish species (e.g., smallmouth bass).

Substrate Score vs IBI

QHEI Substrate Score