ABSTRACT
Multiple state and national agencies and various regional groups often collect ecological data from the same river systems using disparate methodologies chosen to maximize individual program goals. Differences in sampling design, sampling methodology, and analytical procedures produce a paucity of integrated regional analyses, despite abundant regional data (National Research Council, 1995; Ward, 1996). For this reason recent technical and academic discussions have focused on standardization of methods (Barbour et al., 1999) and evaluation of competing assessment methodologies (Reynoldson et al., 1997; Hawkins et al., 2000), with the goal of reaching a common methodological basis for integrated large-scale stream assessments.
