Review of Literature/Existing Studies

It is important to know what other studies have been conducted in a water body as literature reviews and compilations of existing studies can provide an important historical perspective to the analysis of current patterns in aquatic biological communities. These studies often include research programs from nearby universities/colleges, monitoring programs from state and federal agencies, or studies by other parties on the waterbody.

Stream ecology studies can include a variety of targeted or broad-scale assessments of physical habitat, flow modification, biological communities, and perhaps the interaction of all these.

Such stream ecology studies often include quantitative or qualitative sampling of fish and invertebrate populations, detailed habitat characterization, or perhaps temperature or flow modeling. Ecological studies may also be used to provide long-term monitoring of stream conditions adjacent to industrial sites, municipal wastewater plant, or other human activities as a measure of the performance of pollution-reduction activities.

In addition, GEI maintains a private library of over 20,000 scientific articles and periodicals and has authored, edited, or peer-reviewed hundreds of relevant articles, reports, and scientific presentations.