The temporal effects of heavy metal contamination on the fish community of the West Fork White River, Delaware County, Indiana, USA.

The importance of monitoring anthropogenic changes in a lotic system is not limited to chemical water quality monitoring. The addition of biological monitoring allows fish to be used as bioindicators because of their varying tolerance to pollution. For this study, we utilized long-term water quality and fish data to evaluate temporal changes brought on by passage of the Clean Water Act (1972).