Measuring the amount of statistical information in the EPT index

Abstract

SUMMARYBiological monitoring is the process of measuring the effect of environmental stress on the environment. Aquatic macroinvertebrates are widely used in the monitoring of freshwater lotic systems. The macroinvertebrate fauna of a reference stream is commonly compared to the fauna of an impacted stream that is affected by an environmental stressor. The smaller the similarity between these two streams, the greater the effect of pollution or stress on the impacted stream. Many richness measures, or statistics, exist for measuring similarity. These statistics can be computed using different levels of taxonomic resolution (species, genus and family). Many aquatic biologists believe that species-level identifications, which require exorbitant time and expertise, are needed for correct data interpretations. The actual amount of information provided by these statistics at different taxonomic levels has never been measured. This article evaluates the amount of statistical information provided by the EPT index as compared to a sufficient statistic at the various levels of taxonomic resolution.

When Black Sheep Make us Think: Information Processing and Devaluation of In- and Outgroup Norm Deviants

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“…We base our investigation of ingroup-focused information processing on the Heuristic-Systematic Model (HSM; Chaiken, Liberman, & Eagly, 1989;Chen, & Chaiken, 1999). The HSM claims that judgments about social stimuli are determined by two basic processing modes.…”

Land‐use legacy and the differential response of stream macroinvertebrates to multiple stressors studied usingin situexperimental mesocosms

“…Kitchin (2005) argued that the use of EPT taxa richness is a time-efficient and sufficiently detailed approach and showed that the EPT taxa index can detect even small differences between groups. Kitchin (2005) argued that the use of EPT taxa richness is a time-efficient and sufficiently detailed approach and showed that the EPT taxa index can detect even small differences between groups.…”

“…The sub-basins did not differ in background EPT taxa richness. Kitchin (2005) argued that the use of EPT taxa richness is a time-efficient and sufficiently detailed approach and showed that the EPT taxa index can detect even small differences between groups. As in the present experiment, other studies have also demonstrated how the information output can be augmented by increasing taxonomic resolution (Arscott, Jackson & Kratzer, 2006;Monk et al, 2012).…”

Comparison of Sewage and Coal-Mine Wastes on Stream Macroinvertebrates Within an Otherwise Clean Upland Catchment, Southeastern Australia

“…The EPT index has been widely reported to be a robust and effective index for measuring impairment to stream macroinvertebrates (e.g. Sheehan 1984;Plafkin et al 1989; Barbour et al 1992;Hickey and Clements 1998;Camargo et al 2004;Kitchin 2005;Metzeling et al 2006). Other biotic indices have been developed, such as the Australian SIGNAL and SIGNAL2 pollution tolerance indices (Chessman 1995(Chessman , 2003 and the South African Chutter index (Chutter 1972) based on the relative tolerance of macroinvertebrate taxonomic groups to water pollution within a geographical area.…”