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Ecoregions And Subregions Of Iowa: A Framework For Water Quality Assessment And Management, Glenn E. Griffith, James M. Omernik, Thomas F. Wilton, Suzanne M. Pierson

Journal of the Iowa Academy of Science: JIAS

Ecoregion frameworks are valuable tools for inventorying and assessing environmental resources, for setting resource management goals, and for developing biological criteria and water quality standards. In a collaborative project between the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), we have refined boundaries of the EPA's five ecological regions of Iowa and defined six subregions of the Western Corn Belt Plains ecoregion within the state. Lists of candidate stream reference sites have been developed to date for the seven largest regions, and the sites were visited and evaluated by Iowa DNR and U.S. EPA personnel …