Multimetric Macroinvertebrate Index Flanders (MMIF) for biological assessment of rivers and lakes in Flanders (Belgium)

Gabriëls, Wim; Lock, Koen; Pauw, Niels De; Goethals, Peter

doi:10.1016/j.limno.2009.10.001

Cited by 253 publications

(186 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…Most waterbugs have a moderate tolerance score, which explains why not much variation was observed in the concentrations of oxygen and nutrients at which different species were sampled. It can be concluded that there was good agreement between the tolerance scores used by Gabriels et al (2010) and the results obtained during the present study. However, it should be noted that in both studies, sensitivity was mainly related, either directly or indirectly, to dissolved oxygen concentration, whereas other potentially important parameters, such as habitat requirements or fish predation, were not taken into account.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 83%

“…Since water quality monitoring has focused especially on running waters, stagnant waters were underrepresented (Table 1). During monitoring, macroinvertebrates were sampled using a standard handnet, as described by Gabriels et al (2010): a stretch of 10-20 m was sampled for approximately 5 min by kick sampling.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In order to meet the requirements of the WFD, Multimetric Macroinvertebrate Index Flanders (MMIF; Gabriels et al, 2010) was recently developed. This is a type-specific multimetric index consisting of five equally weighted metrics such as taxa richness, the number of EPT-taxa (Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera and Trichoptera), the number of other sensitive taxa, the Shannon-Wiener diversity index and mean tolerance score.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Effect of water quality on waterbugs (Hemiptera: Gerromorpha & Nepomorpha) in Flanders (Belgium): results from a large-scale field survey

Lock

Adriaens

Meutter

et al. 2013

Ann. Limnol. - Int. J. Lim.

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-Macroinvertebrates have been collected in Flanders since 1989 by the Flemish EnvironmentAgency to assess ecological water quality. During the present study, the collected waterbugs were identified to species level. In total, more than 90 000 waterbugs were identified, belonging to 45 species. Two of these are recent additions to Flemish fauna: Sigara iactans was found to be a common species in 1989, the first year of monitoring, which is earlier than the first records reported so far, whereas Cymatia rogenhoferi remains a very rare species. Five different communities could be recognized: (1) species occurring in alkaline waters with a high pH, (2) species occurring in colder waters that can tolerate slightly brackish and nutrient rich water, (3) species from running waters, (4) species from acidic waters and (5) ubiquist species that occurred in all types of water. Owing to the general improvement of chemical water quality during the last decade, most species increased, however, three pollution tolerant species declined significantly: Callicorixa praeusta, Corixa punctata and Sigara striata.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 83%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Effect of water quality on waterbugs (Hemiptera: Gerromorpha & Nepomorpha) in Flanders (Belgium): results from a large-scale field survey

Lock

Adriaens

Meutter

et al. 2013

Ann. Limnol. - Int. J. Lim.

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“…Macroinvertebrates were collected with a standard hand net consisting of a metal frame holding a conical net (meshsize 300 mm) at the same sites where water quality was measured. Macroinvertebrates were collected over 5 min active sampling, including all different microhabitats present at the sampling site (Gabriels et al, 2010). Samples were sieved (500 mm mesh size) in the laboratory and sorted in white trays.…”

Section: Sampling Of Macroinvertebratesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Water quality related macroinvertebrate community responses to environmental gradients in the Portoviejo River (Ecuador)

Nguyen

Boets

Lock

et al. 2017

Ann. Limnol. - Int. J. Lim.

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-The Portoviejo River, located in the central western part of Ecuador, has been heavily impacted by damming, intensive agriculture and untreated wastewater discharge. Unfortunately, detailed information on the water quality and the ecological status of the Portoviejo River is not available, inhibiting decisionmaking and the development of water management plans. Therefore, the aims of this study were (1) to assess the ecological water quality, (2) to investigate the point along the environmental gradient where the most significant change in macroinvertebrate community occurs and (3) to find potential macroinvertebrate taxa that significantly change in abundance and frequency of occurrence along the Portoviejo River. To this end, macroinvertebrate and physico-chemical data were collected and hydro-morphological conditions were recorded at 31 locations during the dry season of 2015. The results showed that the ecological water quality of the sampling sites ranged from good to bad. In addition, the Threshold Indicator Taxa ANalysis was used to examine changes in macroinvertebrate communities and revealed significant community change points for sensitive taxa declining at a conductivity value of 930 (mS.cm x1 ) and nitrate-nitrogen concentrations of 0.6 mg.L x1 . In addition, the thresholds estimated for tolerant taxa were set at a conductivity value of 1430 mS.cm x1 and nitrate-nitrogen concentration of 2.3 mg.L. Atyidae, Corbiculidae, Thiaridae, Acari, Baetidae and Leptohyphidae can be considered indicator taxa, showing shifts in the community. This study suggests that values of conductivity and nitrate-nitrogen concentrations should not exceed the threshold levels in order to protect macroinvertebrate biodiversity in the Portoviejo River.

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“…The nature of these relationships depends on the types of the anthropogenic disturbances and the responses of biological assemblages. In highly diverse natural assemblages human-caused environmental changes result in a decrease both in functional and species diversity (Gabriels et al, 2010). In the case of benthic diatoms, assemblages exhibit opposite responses to nutrient enrichment.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of phytoplankton diversity metrics in shallow lake and river quality assessment

Borics

Görgényi

Grigorszky

et al. 2014

Ecological Indicators

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Ecological water quality problems are frequently connected to increment of phytoplankton productivity and overdominance of some phytoplankton species. Metrics that show monotonously increasing or decreasing tendencies along stressor gradients is recommended for ecological state assessment. Diversity metrics are influenced by various physical disturbances and show high within-year variability; thus, there is no agreement on the usefulness of these metrics as state indicators.To test the usefulness of phytoplankton diversity in ecological state assessment we investigated the productivity-diversity relationships for lakes and rivers in the Carpathian Basin (Hungary). We demonstrated that the shape of productivity-diversity relationship depends on the investigated water body type. Regarding lakes, hump-shaped relationship was found for all computed metrics. Parallel with the increase in phytoplankton productivity values, diversity metrics showed monotonously increasing tendencies in rhithral and decreasing tendencies in large potamal rivers. We found no systematic relationship in the case of small lowland rivers. Changes of diversity metrics calculated for species and functional groups showed similar tendencies within the types, only the slopes of regression lines differ each other. The use of diversity metrics as ecological state indicators should be restricted to water body types where diversity decreases or increases monotonously with phytoplankton biomass. Regarding the lakes the use of diversity metrics is not recommended for ecological state assessment. In rhithral and large potamal river assessment, application of diversity metrics should be strongly considered. We demonstrated that diversity metrics can be useful components of multimetric indices proposed to use by the Water Framework Directive.

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Multimetric Macroinvertebrate Index Flanders (MMIF) for biological assessment of rivers and lakes in Flanders (Belgium)

Cited by 253 publications

References 28 publications

Effect of water quality on waterbugs (Hemiptera: Gerromorpha & Nepomorpha) in Flanders (Belgium): results from a large-scale field survey

Effect of water quality on waterbugs (Hemiptera: Gerromorpha & Nepomorpha) in Flanders (Belgium): results from a large-scale field survey

Water quality related macroinvertebrate community responses to environmental gradients in the Portoviejo River (Ecuador)

The role of phytoplankton diversity metrics in shallow lake and river quality assessment

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