Upper Mississippi River Restoration Program

Upper Mississippi River Restoration Program

Long Term Resource Monitoring

 

Water Quality


Focused Research
Habitat suitability
Nutrient loading
Primary production
Metaphyton

Backwater effects

Backwaters (off-channel areas) of the UMRS are characterized by individual bodies of water often resembling lakes. These lakelike areas vary in size, shape, depth, and connection to the channels. As a result, these overall characteristics of a lake may greatly affect how the water body functions. In particular, LTRMP has focused research on how connectivity might affect conditions that are important to resource managers (i.e., winter water temperature).

Variation in chlorophyll a and inorganic suspended solids in backwater lakes of the Upper Mississippi River. Open file report

Predicting backwater lake suitability using landscape metrics. The exchange of water between the channel and backwaters influences habitat conditions. The amount of water exchange should be somewhat predictable by morphometric characteristics that can be spatially mapped in a GIS. We found a couple simple metrics that partially explain suitability. Project Status Report .

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