TY - JOUR
T1 - Assemblage-based biomonitoring of freshwater ecosystem health via multimetric indices
T2 - A critical review and suggestions for improving their applicability
AU - Vadas, Robert L.
AU - Hughes, Robert M.
AU - Bae, Yeon Jae
AU - Baek, Min Jeong
AU - Gonzáles, Orestes Carlos Bello
AU - Callisto, Marcos
AU - Carvalho, Débora Reis de
AU - Chen, Kai
AU - Ferreira, Maria T.
AU - Fierro, Pablo
AU - Harding, Jon S.
AU - Infante, Dana M.
AU - Kleynhans, C. J.
AU - Macedo, Diego R.
AU - Martins, Isabela
AU - Silva, Norman Mercado
AU - Moya, Nabor
AU - Nichols, Susan J.
AU - Pompeu, Paulo S.
AU - Ruaro, Renata
AU - Silva, Deborah R.O.
AU - Stevenson, R. Jan
AU - Terra, Bianca de Freitas
AU - Thirion, Christa
AU - Ticiani, Douglas
AU - Wang, Lizhu
AU - Yoder, Chris O.
N1 - Funding Information:
RLV thanks the Virginia Water Resources Research Center for funding research on several of the ideas presented here, as well as David Allan and Douglas Gill for insightful comments. RMH received a Fulbright Brasil grant and National Council for Scientific & Technological Development (CNPq 450711/2016-1) funding. MC is grateful for continued funding by Programa Peixe Vivo of the Companhia Energética de Minas Gerais (P&D Aneel-Cemig GT-599, and GT-611), and was awarded a CNPq research productivity grant 304060/2020-8 and received grant PPM 00104-18 from the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais. KC was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China ( NSFC 51509159 ) and Scientific Research Start-up Fund of Hainan University ( RZ2200001344 ). PF received a Fondo Nacional de Desarrollo Científico y Tecnológico award 11190631. DRM was awarded a CNPq research productivity grant (PQ-309763-2020-7). OCBG received funding from the Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Technologia (Mexico). PSP was awarded a CNPq research productivity grant 303548/2017-7, and BFT received a Fundacão Cearense de Apoio ao Desenvolvimento Cientifico e Techológico research productivity grant BP4-0172-00184.01.00/20. We appreciate the critical recommendations of Jim Karr and anonymous reviewers.
Funding Information:
RLV thanks the Virginia Water Resources Research Center for funding research on several of the ideas presented here, as well as David Allan and Douglas Gill for insightful comments. RMH received a Fulbright Brasil grant and National Council for Scientific & Technological Development (CNPq 450711/2016-1) funding. MC is grateful for continued funding by Programa Peixe Vivo of the Companhia Energética de Minas Gerais (P&D Aneel-Cemig GT-599, and GT-611), and was awarded a CNPq research productivity grant 304060/2020-8 and received grant PPM 00104-18 from the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais. KC was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC 51509159) and Scientific Research Start-up Fund of Hainan University (RZ2200001344). PF received a Fondo Nacional de Desarrollo Científico y Tecnológico award 11190631. DRM was awarded a CNPq research productivity grant (PQ-309763-2020-7). OCBG received funding from the Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Technologia (Mexico). PSP was awarded a CNPq research productivity grant 303548/2017-7, and BFT received a Fundacão Cearense de Apoio ao Desenvolvimento Cientifico e Techológico research productivity grant BP4-0172-00184.01.00/20. We appreciate the critical recommendations of Jim Karr and anonymous reviewers.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Authors
PY - 2022/8
Y1 - 2022/8
N2 - Freshwater biota are more comprehensive and direct indicators of biological impacts, and more meaningful to the public than water quality or physical habitat surrogates. Freshwater biotic data and the multiple biological indicators developed from them offer a much richer array of data for assessing the impacts of pollution controls than a limited set of physical or chemical measures. In recent decades, assemblage-based assessments by ecologists, environmental scientists, and water quality agencies have been employed globally for determining the condition of, and threats to, freshwater ecosystems. A key step in this advance has been the development of multimetric indices (MMIs) or indices of biotic integrity (IBIs) based on quantitative assessments of algae, macrophyte, macroinvertebrate, fish or riparian bird assemblages. In Europe, where biological assemblages are mandated for assessing freshwater ecosystem health, many indices are multimetric. However, the proliferation of MMIs globally has not always occurred through the application of rigorous study designs and monitoring protocols, nor have they always effectively incorporated functional metrics, stressor assessments, and statistical analyses. Therefore, in this review, we discuss eleven major concerns with the development and application (including logistical limitations) of multimetric indicators based on freshwater biota to encourage more rigorous and widely applicable (transferable) MMI use and implementation. Specifically, our concerns focus on reference conditions; sampling effort, methods, and season; trophic guild definition; metric comprehensiveness, options, screening and scoring; and MMI validation. MMIs could also benefit from increased attention to ecological mechanisms and metric development, to further improve our understanding of anthropogenic impacts as well as rehabilitation effects on freshwater ecosystems globally. Paying closer attention to study designs, ecological mechanisms and metric development should further improve our understanding of anthropogenic impacts and better facilitate rehabilitation of degraded freshwater ecosystems, as well as aiding in the conservation of healthy freshwater ecosystems globally.
AB - Freshwater biota are more comprehensive and direct indicators of biological impacts, and more meaningful to the public than water quality or physical habitat surrogates. Freshwater biotic data and the multiple biological indicators developed from them offer a much richer array of data for assessing the impacts of pollution controls than a limited set of physical or chemical measures. In recent decades, assemblage-based assessments by ecologists, environmental scientists, and water quality agencies have been employed globally for determining the condition of, and threats to, freshwater ecosystems. A key step in this advance has been the development of multimetric indices (MMIs) or indices of biotic integrity (IBIs) based on quantitative assessments of algae, macrophyte, macroinvertebrate, fish or riparian bird assemblages. In Europe, where biological assemblages are mandated for assessing freshwater ecosystem health, many indices are multimetric. However, the proliferation of MMIs globally has not always occurred through the application of rigorous study designs and monitoring protocols, nor have they always effectively incorporated functional metrics, stressor assessments, and statistical analyses. Therefore, in this review, we discuss eleven major concerns with the development and application (including logistical limitations) of multimetric indicators based on freshwater biota to encourage more rigorous and widely applicable (transferable) MMI use and implementation. Specifically, our concerns focus on reference conditions; sampling effort, methods, and season; trophic guild definition; metric comprehensiveness, options, screening and scoring; and MMI validation. MMIs could also benefit from increased attention to ecological mechanisms and metric development, to further improve our understanding of anthropogenic impacts as well as rehabilitation effects on freshwater ecosystems globally. Paying closer attention to study designs, ecological mechanisms and metric development should further improve our understanding of anthropogenic impacts and better facilitate rehabilitation of degraded freshwater ecosystems, as well as aiding in the conservation of healthy freshwater ecosystems globally.
KW - Algae
KW - Biological monitoring
KW - Fish
KW - IBI
KW - Lakes
KW - MMI
KW - Macroinvertebrates
KW - Rivers
KW - Streams
KW - Wetlands
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85136739377&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.watbs.2022.100054
DO - 10.1016/j.watbs.2022.100054
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:85136739377
SN - 2772-7351
VL - 1
JO - Water Biology and Security
JF - Water Biology and Security
IS - 3
M1 - 100054
ER -