Least-Desired Index for Assessing the Effectiveness of Grass Riparian Filter Strips in Improving Water Quality in an Agricultural Region

Kosnicki, Ely; Sites, Robert W.

doi:10.1093/ee/36.4.713

Cited by 6 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…Multiple approaches are used to detect change (e.g., Stoddard et al 1998;Chessman and Royal 2004;Hawkins et al 2010;Bouchard et al 2016;Hooper et al 2016). Using the least-desirable, antireference, and antitarget approach (Kosnicki and Sites 2007;Vallières et al 2007), there is sitespecific evidence of differences in health of white sucker captured at the MAT-EXP site after the closure of the mill. Heavier gonads than expected and lighter livers than expected in males and smaller livers in females were consistently observed at the MAT-EXP location.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Three general outcomes in health measurements of fish were possible after the closure of the mill: health would improve, degrade, or would not change. Based on previous findings of degraded health in fish previously exposed to pulp mill effluent from the Smooth Rock Falls mill (Munkittrick et al 2000;, we expected that recovery in fish would indicate improvements in health and occur as changes away from previous measurements following an antitarget approach (Kosnicki and Sites 2007;Vallières et al 2007). More specifically, we expected changes in physiological indicators would not be apparent after the closure of the mill.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 90%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Long-Term Studies of Fish Health before and after the Closure of a Bleached Kraft Pulp Mill in Northern Ontario, Canada

Arciszewski

McMaster

Munkittrick

2020

Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry

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Changes in ecosystems after the removal of stress provide a rich source of information for conservation science. We used a long-term regional data set on the performance of white sucker (Catostomus commersonii) collected before and after the closure of a pulp mill to explore recovery in fish. Physiological indicators, including liver enzymes and plasma steroids, showed some compelling changes after the closure of the mill consistent with reduced exposure to pulp mill effluent but did not unequivocally demonstrate recovery. However, persistent signals in these fish may indicate effects of impoundment or discharge of sewage. We also used quantile regression with environmental covariates and bootstrap iteration to determine if systematic variation remained in relative body weight, liver weight, and gonad weight. In fish formerly exposed to pulp mill effluent, we found evidence of improvements (male gonad weight and liver weight of males and females), degradation (gonad weight of females), and no change (body weight). Although the observed patterns may be associated with closure of the mill, some differences were also found at regional locations, suggesting roles of additional stressors and challenging the clear association of change at the Mattagami River exposure site with the closure of the mill. However, fish captured at this location show responses consistent with regional locations, suggesting no residual impacts and highlights the challenges of identifying changes in fish even after large and known interventions.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 90%

Long-Term Studies of Fish Health before and after the Closure of a Bleached Kraft Pulp Mill in Northern Ontario, Canada

Arciszewski

McMaster

Munkittrick

2020

Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry

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“…The effectiveness of gravel-filled colonization trays for characterizing the macroinvertebrate community has been demonstrated in previous studies [37] [38] [39]. Hester-Dendy samplers have been used with success by federal [14] and state [7] [44], and multivariate statistical analyses like NMDS is likely necessary to detect these differences. Future analyses of water quality would warrant incorporation of analyses of chironomid traits and life history strategies [45] as an-other means of detecting changes in the level of anthropogenic disturbance.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For streams with diverse communities, identification of macroinvertebrates to family level can be sufficient to detect spatial or temporal differences in water quality [ 41 ] [ 42 ]. However, for highly impacted streams like Congress Run, composed mostly of Chironomidae and Oligochaeta, identification of Chironomidae to lowest achievable level (usually genus or species), along with a focus on chironomid community-based metrics [ 43 ] [ 44 ], and multivariate statistical analyses like NMDS is likely necessary to detect these differences. Future analyses of water quality would warrant incorporation of analyses of chironomid traits and life history strategies [ 45 ] as another means of detecting changes in the level of anthropogenic disturbance.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparison of Three Macroinvertebrate Sampling Methods for Use in Assessment of Water Quality Changes in Flashy Urban Streams

Yeardley¹,

Jacobs²,

Fritz³

et al. 2020

JEP

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The unique challenges associated with sampling of macroinvertebrates in flashy urban streams create a methods gap. These streams form isolated pools for much of the year, interspersed with spates that scour and deposit excessive amounts of sediment. Commonly used stream grab sampling methods, such as nets and Hess and Surber fixed-area samplers, work well in wadable streams with perennial flow. Deployed samplers (Hester-Dendy, gravel tray) can be used in waters with or without flow. We evaluated three methods which don't require stream flow: modified Hester-Dendy (MHD), gravel tray, and bucket (a type of cylinder grab sample method), for their potential use in bioassessment of a project involving daylighting of a 180-m culvert on Congress Run, a flashy urban tributary to Mill Creek in Cincinnati, Ohio. Method efficacy was measured using three criteria: usability (level of effort and recoverability of samplers), variability, and community retrieval completeness. The bucket method required the lowest level of effort and had the highest sample recovery. The bucket sampler had the lowest variability for most metrics, including the critical metric of taxa richness, with a coefficient of variation (CV) of 20.9%. The MHD and tray samplers had taxa richness CVs of 42.9% and 53.9%, respectively. The bucket sampler also had the lowest CV (27.4%) for a multi-metric index. The bucket sampler performed best with respect to community retrieval completeness, with higher pooled and average taxa richness. The total number of taxa collected from all the replicate bucket grab samples (42) was greater than that collected by the HD and tray samplers combined (27). Multivariate analyses showed significant grouping with respect to methods and location. This study supports the bucket grab sampler method as a candidate for sampling of flashy urban streams.

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“…An equally important or more important issue with significant implications for conclusions and management recommendations derived from IBIs is accurately determining the level of disturbance at the reference sites. The representation of reference conditions by low-quality sites can result in misleading assessments (Kosnicki and Sites 2007;Herlihy et al 2008). However, in the Sand Hills ecoregion and the Southeastern Coastal Plain in general, a long history of human disturbance means that even the best reference sites represent least disturbed conditions rather than minimally disturbed conditions (see Stoddard et al 2006), a fact that was supported by the analysis of historical aerial photographs.…”

Section: Ibi For the Sand Hills Ecoregionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development of an Index of Biotic Integrity for the Sand Hills Ecoregion of the Southeastern United States

Paller

Kosnicki

Prusha³

et al. 2016

Trans Am Fish Soc

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We developed an index of biotic integrity (IBI) for the Sand Hills ecoregion within the upper Coastal Plain of the southeastern United States. This ecoregion exhibits differences in species composition among river basins and possesses a relatively depauperate fish fauna that has been affected by faunal homogenization. We also investigated whether this IBI could be improved by adding benthic macroinvertebrate information. Data collected from 70 wadeable stream sites were used to calculate 45 fish assemblage metrics. Twelve metrics within the categories of species richness, species composition, habitat guild, trophic guild, tolerance level, alien/invasive species, and individual fish condition were retained after screening all metrics for sensitivity to disturbance, redundancy, and ecological content. Heterogeneity of species composition among basins led to a greater reliance on richness, indicator species, trophic guild, and habitat guild metrics rather than on more geographically variable species composition metrics. Characteristic headwater assemblages provided the basis for some metrics, and invader species metrics were included to address faunal homogenization. The Sand Hills IBI (SHIBI) was more accurate ecoregion-wide than IBIs that were developed for portions of the Sand Hills, correctly classifying about 60% of the disturbed sites compared with less than 30% for the other IBIs. However, the SHIBI was not highly responsive to gradients in site quality, as indicated by an R 2 of 0.30 between SHIBI scores and instream habitat quality scores. This R 2 value was improved to 0.49 by supplementing the SHIBI with a benthic macroinvertebrate index (the Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, and Trichoptera index). We conclude that ecoregion-wide IBIs should (1) be based on ecoregion-wide data that characterize responses to disturbance and natural habitat gradients, (2) maintain a substantial ecological basis by including several metric classes, and (3) include metrics that address faunal homogenization where disturbance has increased the dispersion of nonnative species and native generalist species. In addition, combining information from different assemblages can enhance IBI responsiveness to disturbance and improve performance.

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Least-Desired Index for Assessing the Effectiveness of Grass Riparian Filter Strips in Improving Water Quality in an Agricultural Region

Cited by 6 publications

References 39 publications

Long-Term Studies of Fish Health before and after the Closure of a Bleached Kraft Pulp Mill in Northern Ontario, Canada

Long-Term Studies of Fish Health before and after the Closure of a Bleached Kraft Pulp Mill in Northern Ontario, Canada

Comparison of Three Macroinvertebrate Sampling Methods for Use in Assessment of Water Quality Changes in Flashy Urban Streams

Development of an Index of Biotic Integrity for the Sand Hills Ecoregion of the Southeastern United States

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