The U.S. Geological Survey is conducting a study to characterize daily water quality during selected base flow and storm events upstream and downstream of extensive bottomland hardwood wetland forests on the Cache River, Arkansas and the Coosawhatchie River, South Carolina. The Cache River is located in an area of intensive agriculture within the Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley and is characteristically turbid with a high suspended sediment load. The Coosawhatchie River in coastal South Carolina is a braided, blackwater river with a more forested watershed. Selected events are from3 to 8 consecutive days and include low base flow, high base flow, and storm events. To quantify these events, we are measuring physical parameters such as temperature, pH, conductivity, and dissolved oxygen as well as water quality parameters, including forms of nitrogen, phosphorus, and organic carbon, and suspended sediments. Stream gages have been installed at both upstream and downstream sites, and rating curves have been established to calculate stream flow and loading rates of the chemical constituents. These water-quality data will supplement concurrent biological and geochemical studies within the bottomland hardwood sites adjacent to the Cache and Coosawhatchie Rivers and help quantify the effects of the bottomland hardwood forests on water quality of the adjacent river.

--- January 1997

To order SANT NAWQA publications, please email or call:

Celeste A. Journey
SANT NAWQA Project Chief
cjourney@usgs.gov
(803) 750-6141