A Macroinvertebrate Multimetric Index for the Bioassessment of Wetlands Adjacent to Agriculture Fields in the Sanjiang Plain, China

Abstract

Adjacent intensive agriculture disturbs the natural condition of wetlands. However, to assess the effect of this agriculture on wetlands, few studies have used indices based on aquatic invertebrates. Multi-metric indices (MMIs) have been successfully used to assess freshwater ecosystems worldwide and are an important management tool, but little is known about their applicability in the Sanjiang Plain, Northeast China. In this study, we developed a MMIs for aquatic invertebrates to assess freshwater wetlands in this region. The aquatic invertebrate assemblages were sampled in 27 wetlands in the Sanjiang Plain that included those in natural reserves and those affected by adjacent, intensive agriculture. Twenty-four candidate metrics were initially reviewed and screened before four core metrics were selected: total number of taxa, number of Hemiptera taxa, proportion of Gastropoda, and proportion of predators. Mann-Whitney U tests, Box and Whisker plots, correlation analyses, and redundant metric tests were used to assess the ability of metrics to distinguish among reference and impaired wetlands. Four ordinal rating categories for wetland were defined: poor, fair, good, and excellent. Of the impaired freshwater wetlands, 76.2% were in poor or fair categories. The MMIs was robust in discriminating reference wetlands from impaired wetlands and therefore have potential as a biomonitoring tool to assess the condition and to guide the restoration efforts of freshwater wetlands in Northeast China.

A Framework for Identifying Reference Wetland Conditions in Highly Altered Landscapes

“…In those cases, still, wetlands that are of the best possible condition should be used for reference, although other factors must be taken into consideration as well, such as wetland type and proximity. For example, Wu et al ( 2019 ), studying wetlands in the Sanjiang Plain in China, sampled “27 wetlands across a range of conditions, from reference wetlands in Natural Reserves to those affected by adjacent, intensive agriculture in the Sanjiang Plain, China”. That choice of reference wetlands implies that wetlands in reserves are of better condition than wetlands within the same ecoregion that are adjacent to agricultural activities.…”

Development of a multi-metric index based on macroinvertebrates for wetland ecosystem health assessment in predominantly agricultural landscapes, Upper Blue Nile basin, northwestern Ethiopia

“…The total number of taxa was one of the six core metrics chosen for the development of our MMI. The metric taxa richness was widely selected as a core metric by the previous studies (Mereta et al, 2013;Melo et al, 2015;Lu et al, 2019;Wu et al, 2019) as well because of its ability to separate impaired wetlands from reference wetlands. Barbour et al (1996) reported that a high taxonomic richness implies a better status of aquatic ecosystem conditions and the existence of adequate food resources availability for many species in aquatic ecosystems As it was previous results (Burton et al, 1999;USEPA, 2002;Menetrey et al, 2011;Lunde and Resh, 2012;Melo et al, 2015), we found the decreasing trend total number of taxa with increasing anthropogenic impacts such as hydrological modification and upstream agricultural activities, This suggested the poorer status of wetland ecosystem conditions in the impaired sites of our study wetlands than the ecosystem conditions in the reference sites.…”

“…Another core metric that was selected for the construction of the MMI was Margalef's Index. Margalef's Index has not been commonly used to develop MMI for the assessment of ecological conditions and water quality of wetlands (Kashian and Burton, 2000;Haugerud, 2003;Lunde and Resh, 2012;Mereta et al, 2013;Melo et al, 2015;Lu et al, 2019;Wu et al, 2019). It has been selected as a core metric by the studies (Nguyen et al, 2014;Odabaşı et al, 2022), which were conducted for streams' water quality or ecological health assessment.…”

Aquatic invertebrate assemblages as potential indicators of restoration conditions in wetlands of Northeastern China

“…While vegetation recovery can take decades (Taddeo & Dronova 2018), necessitating the need for long‐term studies (Joosten et al 2016; Hancock et al 2018), some studies show that aquatic invertebrates are effective early indicators of the success of habitat restoration projects (Jahnig et al 2010; Li et al 2015). Aquatic invertebrates are important components of wetland ecosystems (Culler et al 2014; Wu et al 2019 a , 2019 b ) and can provide an accurate yet rapid indication of habitat response to disturbance (Yang et al 2017) because of their relatively quick generation time compared to animals like birds or fish. In addition, because of their relatively sedentary life (Brown et al 2009; Sartori et al 2015), aquatic invertebrates may be particularly good surrogates for comparing ecosystem function in restored, impaired, and natural wetlands (Balcombe et al 2005; Ruhí & Batzer 2014; Swartz et al 2019).…”