Minnesota River Assessment Project Report: Biological and Toxicological Assessment

In order to determine realistic recommendations for river cleanup activities, this component of the Minnesota River Assessment Project was designed to assess current condition in the Minnesota River and its tributaries. The three categories of study were: physical (habitat), chemical/toxicological (water, sediment, and toxicological), and biological (fish, macroinverterbrate, and diatom communities). The study reports the main stressors on the river basin's biological integrity (inputs of sediment and nutrients, and habitat modification from channelization), and on the habitat (lack of substrate heterogeneity, high substrate embeddedness by fine particles, and lack of vegetative riparian areas). See "Contemporary River Conditions/Minnesota River/3 Pollution" for Volume IV.