Partial Least Square Analyses of Landscape and Surface Water Biota Associations in the Savannah River Basin

Table 1

Water biota (response) variables.

Abbreviation	Full name	Methodology
HAB	Macroinvertebrate habitat	A weighted composite score derived from a parameter matrix of on-site observations [20] and modified to fit specific geographical area [19]. Parameters within the matrix are categorized as primary (microscale), secondary (macroscale), or tertiary (riparian zone). Higher scores indicate better conditions for sustaining healthy macroinvertebrate populations.
EPT	Ephemeroptera-Plecoptera-Trichoptera Index	An index of three macroinvertebrate orders known to be sensitive to environmental impacts: Ephemeroptera (mayflies), Plecoptera (stoneflies), and Trichoptera (caddisflies), calculated as a percentage of the number of organisms contained in a 100-organism randomly selected subset of the sample collected for macroinvertebrate species richness [20]. In this data set, values >10% indicate nonimpacted conditions (>10%) that and values ≤1% indicate severely impacted conditions.
RICH	Macroinvertebrate Species Richness	A count of the total number of taxa in a sample collected over a 100 m stream reach [20]. Higher numbers indicate a greater diversity of taxa; in this data set, counts >26 indicated non-impaired conditions, and count <11 indicated severely impacted conditions.
AGPT	Algal Growth Potential Test	Indicator of the amount of nutrients biologically available to support algal growth. A bioassay is performed in the laboratory on aliquots of filtered water collected from the site using standard methodology [21] by Schultz et al. [22]. As a surrogate measurement of nutrient concentration, higher values indicate higher levels of nutrients.