Water quality in Pacific Northwest urban and urbanizing aquatic ecosystems

Abstract

Water quality in streams, lakes, reservoirs, wetlands, and estuaries affects salmonids at all life stages. Degraded water quality reduces habitat quality and depresses or even eliminates salmonid populations. The purpose of this chapter is to review important aspects of water quality and how those aspects are affected by urbanization, with a focus on North America's Pacific Northwest, with an emphasis on Oregon. Water quality aspects discussed in this chapter center on physical aspects such as turbidity, temperature, and dissolved oxygen and on chemical aspects primarily the nutrients phosphorous and nitrogen. Toxic contaminants and the effects of waste water on water quality are treated in Chaps. 9 and 10.