In this report metadata are defined as data about data, or supporting information to go along with data, compiled for analysis or computation. The files under this subtitle are to help the user better use and understand the data that are presented in this report.
Supplemental data are available in 5 downloadable files. Brief descriptions of the data contained in these files are given below.
Sampling approaches and sampling stations gives a quick and easy view of what types of sampling approaches were used at each stream. The table is alphabetized by stream name, but can also be searched using the browser's search mode to look for a specific station identifier. Use this table to locate specific streams or stations to help find the data under the chemical, physical, and biological measurements section.
List of analytes shows analytes measured in ground water, streamwater, streambed sediments, and aquatic biological tissues. This table also contains the method detection limit or the minimum reporting limit for each analyte. This table is alphabetized by analyte type, but can be searched for a specific analyte or parameter code by using the browser's search mode. This table also identifies tabled analytes available in this report and which are available in the download files only. All tables within the data section of this report contain only selected analytes due to space constraints on the window size of most browsers. The download files do contain all of the analytes measured.
Ground-water site locations and Stream site locations, give the description and location of each ground-water and stream site sampled.
Subbasin land use, land cover and geologic characteristics contains land-use and geologic descriptions of the drainage area for integrator, indicator and subunit synoptic stream sites. These statistics were produced to aid the study-unit analysis, and so were only done for those sites necessary.
Ground-water-level data obtained from wells using chalked steel tape, are presented within the field measurement tables. Field measurement tables also contain well characteristics.
Streamflow data are also presented within the field measurement tables; generally, gage height and discharge are shown. Mean streamflow daily values are presented for each integrator and indicator stream. This information is extracted from the State Water Resources Data Reports for the period of record for the data presented here.
Ecological data are included in the streamwater quality data section. Fish-community characteristics include: species, abundance, weight, standard length, total length, and anomalies. Fish communities were sampled at most of the integrator and indicator stream sites. Habitat-characterization measurements are also available; under each subheading there is a table describing what type of data is available and where. Habitat measurements were taken at most integrator, indicator, and synoptic survey stream sites.
Quality-control streamwater and ground-water raw data are presented. Field blank, replicate, spike and associated environmental data are separated into streamwater quality and ground-water quality categories. View tables are shown describing location, time, and type of samples that were collected. For miscellaneous quality-control codes please refer to USGS Open-File Report 97-223, "Quality-Control Design for Streamwater Sampling in the National Water-Quality Assessment Program" (Mueller and others, 1997) (see Selected references).
All samples were analyzed at USGS labs.