A Structured Approach for Developing Indices of Biotic Integrity: Three Examples from Streams and Rivers in the Western USA

Transactions of the American Fisheries Society - Tập 136 Số 3 - Trang 718-735 - 2007
Thomas R. Whittier1, Robert M. Hughes1, John L. Stoddard2, Gregg A. Lomnicky3, David V. Peck2, Alan T. Herlihy1
1Department of Fisheries and Wildlife Oregon State University 200 Southwest 35th Street Corvallis Oregon 97333 USA
2U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory Western Ecology Division 200 Southwest 35th Street Corvallis Oregon 97333 USA
3Dynamac Corporation 200 Southwest 35th Street Corvallis Oregon 97333 USA

Tóm tắt

AbstractIn the late 1990s the Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency developed a structured set of tests to evaluate and facilitate selection of metrics for indices of biotic integrity (IBIs). These IBIs were designed to be applicable across multistate regions as part of a national assessment of all U.S. waters. Here, we present additional steps in, and refinements to, that IBI development process. We used fish and amphibian assemblage data from 932 stream and river sites in 12 western U.S. states to develop IBIs for Mountains, Xeric, and Plains ecoregions. We divided 237 candidate metrics into nine metric classes representing different attributes of assemblage structure and function. For each ecoregion we sequentially eliminated metrics by testing metric range, signal‐to‐noise ratios, responsiveness to disturbance, and redundancy to select the best metric in each class. The IBIs for the Mountains and Plains each had seven metrics and the Xeric IBI had five. In the Mountains, half of the estimated stream length that could be assessed had IBI scores greater than 62 (out of 100). In the Xeric and Plains, half the stream length had scores no greater than 50 and no greater than 37, respectively. An estimated 16% of Xeric stream length had scores greater than 62 (the median for the Mountains), while 5% of Plains stream length had scores that exceeded 62. This IBI development process is less subjective and more streamlined and has more clearly defined criteria for metric selection and scoring than those used in the past, while maintaining a strong ecological foundation.

Từ khóa


Tài liệu tham khảo

10.3998/mpub.9690435

Barbour M. T., 1999, Rapid bioassessment protocols for use in streams and wadeable rivers

Baxter G. T., 1970, Wyoming fishes

10.1098/rstb.1990.0062

10.1007/s00267-002-2949-3

10.1577/1548-8659(1991)120<0752:VFCATI>2.3.CO;2

10.1577/T04-051.1

Brown C. J. D., 1971, Fishes of Montana

10.1007/s00267-005-0152-z

10.1016/0043-1354(72)90170-4

Connor E. J., 1988, Effects of logging on Pacific giant salamanders: Influence of age‐class composition and habitat complexity, Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America, 69, 104

Davis W. S., 1995, Biological assessment and criteria: Tools for water resource planning and decision making

10.1577/1548-8675(2002)022<1105:DOAFBI>2.0.CO;2

10.1577/T01-076

Fore L. S., 2003, Biological response signatures: Indicator patterns using aquatic communities, 445

Frey D. G., 1977, The integrity of water, 127

Fuller P. L., 1999, Special Publication 27

10.1890/1051-0761(2006)016[1277:QBIBTC]2.0.CO;2

10.1890/1051-0761(2000)010[1456:DAEOPM]2.0.CO;2

Herlihy A. T., 2006, Landscape influences on stream habitats and biological assemblages, 87

10.1016/S1470-160X(02)00062-6

10.2307/1468281

Hilsenhoff W. L., 1977, Use of arthropods to evaluate water quality of streams

Hilsenhoff W. L., 1987, An improved biotic index of organic stream pollution, Great Lakes Entomologist, 20, 31

10.1577/M03-231.1

Hughes R. M., 1995, Biological assessment and criteria: Tools for water resource planning and decision making for rivers and streams, 31

10.1577/1548-8659(1987)116<196:LCIFAA>2.0.CO;2

10.1577/T03-146.1

10.1139/f98-060

10.1577/1548-8675(2002)022<1229:EDNTEF>2.0.CO;2

Hughes R. M., 1999, Assessing the sustainability and biological integrity of water resources using fish communities, 79

10.1577/1548-8446(1981)006<0021:AOBIUF>2.0.CO;2

Karr J. R., 2006, Seven foundations of biological monitoring and assessment, Biologia Ambientale, 20, 7

Karr J. R., 1999, Restoring life in running waters: Better biological monitoring

10.1023/A:1017097611303

10.1007/BF01866609

Karr J. R., 1986, Assessing biological integrity in running waters: A method and its rationale

Karr J. R., 2003, A terrestrial arthropod index of biological integrity for shrub‐steppe landscapes, Northwest Science, 77, 202

Kaufmann P. R., 1999, Quantifying physical habitat in wadeable streams

10.2307/1942007

10.1007/s00267-002-2945-7

10.1016/S0269-7491(01)00205-6

Lee D. S., 1980, Atlas of North American freshwater fishes

10.1577/1548-8659(1986)115<401:AATOAI>2.0.CO;2

10.1046/j.1523-1739.1995.09030569.x

Lyons J., 2001, Development, validation, and application of a fish‐based index of biotic integrity for Wisconsin's large warmwater rivers, Transactions of the American Fisheries Society, 130, 1007, 10.1577/1548-8659(2001)130<1077:DVAAOA>2.0.CO;2

10.1577/1548-8675(1996)016<0241:DAVOAI>2.3.CO;2

10.1577/1548-8659(2001)130<0857:DOAIOB>2.0.CO;2

10.1577/1548-8659(2003)132<0239:AIOBII>2.0.CO;2

10.1577/1548-8446(1988)013<0012:RAOAIO>2.0.CO;2

Minckley W. L., 1973, Fishes of Arizona

10.1139/f94-183

Moyle P. B., 1976, Inland fishes of California

Moyle P. B., 1999, Assessing the sustainability and biological integrity of water resources using fish communities, 367

10.1023/A:1004176507184

10.1046/j.1365-2427.2002.00884.x

10.1890/1051-0761(2000)010[1706:BGAIOE]2.0.CO;2

10.1111/j.1467-8306.1987.tb00149.x

Page L. M., 1991, A field guide to freshwater fishes

Peck D. V., Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program: Surface Waters Western Pilot Study—field operations manual for nonwadeable rivers and streams

Peck D. V., 2006, Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program: Surface Waters Western Pilot Study—field operations manual for wadeable streams

10.1111/j.1365-2664.2005.01126.x

10.1577/1548-8675(2003)023<0450:EERFAS>2.0.CO;2

10.1023/A:1005950228017

10.1080/02705060.2002.9663935

Sigler W. F., 1987, Fishes of the Great Basin: A natural history

Sigler W. F., 1996, Fishes of Utah: A natural history

Simon T. P., 1999, Assessing the sustainability and biological integrity of water resource quality using fish communities

Simon T. P., 1999, Assessing the sustainability and biological integrity of water resources using fish communities, 97

Simon T. P., 1995, Biological assessment and criteria: Tools for water resource planning and decision making, 245

Simpson J. C., 1982, Fishes of Idaho

Stebbins R. C., 1954, Amphibians and reptiles of the western United States

10.1198/016214504000000250

10.1890/1051-0761(2006)016[1267:SEFTEC]2.0.CO;2

Stoddard J. L., 2005, Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (EMAP): Western streams and rivers statistical summary

Stoddard J. L., 2005, An ecological assessment of western streams and rivers

10.1016/0025-5564(86)90031-3

USEPA (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency), 1996, Level III ecoregions of the continental United States (revised from Omernik 1987)

USEPA (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency), 2006, Wadeable streams assessment: A collaborative survey of the nation's streams

10.1577/1548-8675(1998)018<0236:EOFSTT>2.0.CO;2

10.1577/T06-094.1

Whittier T. R., 2006, Landscape influences on stream habitats and biological assemblages, 641

10.1899/0887-3593(2007)26[349:SRSFSB]2.0.CO;2

Wydoski R. S., 1979, Inland fishes of Washington

Yoder C. O., 1995, Biological assessment and criteria: Tools for water resource planning and decision making, 109

Yoder C. O., 2005, Historical changes in large‐river fish assemblages of the Americas, 399

Zaroban D. W., 1999, Classification of species attributes for Pacific Northwest freshwater fishes, Northwest Science, 73, 81

Thông tin
Thông tin xuất bản

Transactions of the American Fisheries Society

Tập 136 Số 3

718-735

Thông tin tác giả