DEVELOPMENTS IN AQUATIC INSECT BIOMONITORING: A Comparative Analysis of Recent Approaches

Abstract

Aquatic insects and other benthic invertebrates are the most widely used organisms in freshwater biomonitoring of human impact. Because of the high monetary investment in freshwater management, decisions are often based on biomonitoring results, and a critical and comparative review of different approaches is required. We used 12 criteria that should be fulfilled by an "ideal" biomonitoring tool, addressing the rationale, implementation, and performance of a method. After illustrating how the century-old but still widely used Saprobian system does not meet these criteria, we apply them to nine recent approaches that range from the suborganismal to the ecosystem level. Although significant progress has been made in the field, no recent approach meets all 12 criteria. Given that the use of biomonitoring information has important financial consequences, we suggest that societies and governments prioritize how these criteria should be ranked.

Biomonitoring of lake sediments using benthic macroinvertebrates

“…36,2012 empirical models for prediction of the composition of the communities in relation to the natural features of the sites [54]. The communities observed can be compared with those expected at a site in order to measure the deviations from the natural conditions (i.e.…”

“…Both RIVPACS and BEAST models were developed on empirical data collected in limited geographical areas and cannot be applied elsewhere [54]. Moreover, they make an a posteriori prediction, after the calculation of the main ecological gradients.…”

“…numerical adimensional values expressing the general status of ecosystems). Biotic metrics describe different aspects of the structure and the sensitivity of communities (diversity, abundance, tolerance) and are based on taxonomic identification of organisms, from family to species level [54]. These indices have been included in many monitoring programs, since they are easy to calculate and they can be combined in multimetric indices in order to quantify with a single value the overall effect of stressors on communities at specific sites.…”

“…Nonetheless, they cannot be used to discriminate different anthropogenic impacts, as single metrics may respond similarly to different pressures (e.g. organic enrichment, morphological impairment, eutrophication, toxic contamination, and general degradation of sites) [54,60].…”

“…The resistance and the resilience characteristics adopted by taxa therefore determine the response of the community to disturbance events. The advantage of using functional traits instead of taxonomic composition of communities is bound to the a priori predictable response of traits to individual stressors [16,54,77]. Each trait is supposed to respond independently to a given pressure and each pressure affects different traits.…”