Battle Creek Stressor Identification Report A study of local stressors limiting the biotic communities in the Battle Creek Watershed. December

This report summarizes stressor identification work in the Battle Creek Watershed. Stressor identification (SID) is a formal and rigorous process that identifies stressors causing biological impairment of aquatic ecosystems, and provides a structure for organizing the scientific evidence supporting the conclusions (Cormier et al. 2000). In simpler terms, it is the process of identifying the major factors causing harm to fish and aquatic macroinvertebrates. SID is a key component of the major watershed restoration and protection projects being carried out under Minnesota's Clean Water Legacy Act. Over the past few years, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) has substantially increased the use of biological monitoring and assessment as a means to determine and report the condition of rivers and streams. The basic approach is to look at fish and aquatic macroinvertebrates (mostly insects), and related habitat conditions, at sites throughout a major watershed. The resulting information is used to produce an index of biological integrity (IBI). IBI scores can then be compared to standards. Segments of streams and rivers with low IBI scores are deemed impaired for aquatic life use. The purpose of SID is to explain the relationship between stressors and the degraded biological condition. It looks at causal factors – negative ones harming fish and insects"