The Role of Biological Indicators in a State Water Quality Management Process

Yoder, Chris O.; Rankin, Edward T.

doi:10.1007/978-94-011-4976-1_6

Cited by 57 publications

(48 citation statements)

References 12 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Although this approach has the potential to detect major benthic invertebrate responses, less extreme disturbances are expected to be much more difficult to quantify with simple summary metrics and may require more robust multivariate analysis to quantify ecological condition (Reynoldson et al, 1997;Bowman and Somers, 2005). In addition, Yoder and Rankin (1998) demonstrated that errors in overly simplistic estimates of ecological condition are reduced if a robust biological assessment of stream condition is incorporated that evaluates biocriteria in conjunction with water chemistry and toxicological parameters.…”

Section: (Received 10 September 2009; Accepted In Revised Form 4 Augumentioning

confidence: 99%

Benthic Biomonitoring in Arctic Tundra Streams: A Community-Based Approach in Iqaluit, Nunavut, Canada

Medeiros¹,

Luszczek²,

Shirley³

et al. 2011

ARCTIC

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

ABSTrACT. recent residential, commercial, and industrial development in the catchments of several Arctic streams has heightened the need to assess these freshwater systems accurately. It was imperative to develop methods that would be both effective at judging ecological condition of tundra streams and suitable for use by local groups. An investigation of two streams influenced by urbanization in Iqaluit, Nunavut, was carried out between July and August each year in 2007 -09. Simple summary metrics (e.g., Shannon Index) and multivariate analysis (dCA, rdA) both demonstrated biological impairment in the benthic community at site locations downstream of urbanized portions of a local stream. This impairment was characterized by a loss of diversity and a dramatic shift of the benthic community to one dominated by chironomids from the subfamily orthocladiinae. elevated levels of total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorus (TP) and several metals (zn, Sr, rb, Al, Co, Fe) were also found to be significantly related to benthic assemblages within these disturbed areas. This investigation also addressed taxonomic sufficiency, indicating that while family-level taxonomic identifications were sensitive enough to differentiate between pristine and impacted stream sites, a more precise taxonomic identification of the dominant benthos taxa (Insecta: Diptera: Chironomidae) to sub-family/tribe level identified a significant shift towards pollution-tolerant taxa. This higher taxonomic resolution will allow for the adaptation of protocols and the use of simple summary metrics to be effective for a community-based biomonitoring program in Arctic tundra streams.key words: Arctic, streams, benthos, benthic invertebrates, biomonitoring, Nunavut, aquatic systems rÉSuMÉ. de récents développements résidentiels, commerciaux et industriels dans les bassins versants de plusieurs cours d'eau de l'Arctique ont intensifié la nécessité de bien évaluer ces systèmes d'eau douce. Il était impératif de mettre au point des méthodes qui permettraient de juger des conditions écologiques des cours d'eau de la toundra et qui seraient utilisables par divers groupes de la région. Entre juillet et août des années 2007 à 2009, une enquête a été effectuée sur deux cours d'eau influencés par l'urbanisation à Iqaluit, au Nunavut. De simples mesures sommaires (indice de Shannon par exemple) et une analyse à variables multiples (DCA, RDA) ont permis de démontrer la dégradation biologique de la communauté benthique à divers lieux du site, en aval de segments urbanisés d'un cours d'eau local. Cette dégradation était caractérisée par une perte de diversité et un changement dramatique de la communauté benthique qui est maintenant dominée par des chironomidés de la sous-famille Orthocladiinae. Nous avons également constaté que les taux élevés d'azote total (AT), de phosphore total (PT) et de plusieurs métaux (Zn, Sr, Rb, Al, Co, Fe) étaient fortement liés aux assemblages benthiques faisant partie de ces zones perturbées. Cette enquête a également porté sur la suffisanc...

show abstract

Section: (Received 10 September 2009; Accepted In Revised Form 4 Augumentioning

confidence: 99%

Benthic Biomonitoring in Arctic Tundra Streams: A Community-Based Approach in Iqaluit, Nunavut, Canada

Medeiros¹,

Luszczek²,

Shirley³

et al. 2011

ARCTIC

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In practice, ecologists often quantify ecological integrity by sampling biological communities and calculating metrics that indicate known environmental quality gradients (Karr and Chu, 2000). In freshwater ecosystems, ecological integrity assessments have provided insights that were not available from water chemistry assays (e.g., Yoder and Rankin, 1998), because biota are exposed to multiple physical and chemical conditions simultaneously and therefore provide an integrated measure of environmental quality.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ecological Integrity of Streams Related to Human Cancer Mortality Rates

Hitt

Hendryx

2010

EcoHealth

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Assessments of ecological integrity have become commonplace for biological conservation, but their role for public health analysis remains largely unexplored. We tested the prediction that the ecological integrity of streams would provide an indicator of human cancer mortality rates in West Virginia, USA. We characterized ecological integrity using an index of benthic macroinvertebrate community structure (West Virginia Stream Condition Index, SCI) and quantified human cancer mortality rates using county-level data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Regression and spatial analyses revealed significant associations between ecological integrity and public health. SCI was negatively related to age-adjusted total cancer mortality per 100,000 people. Respiratory, digestive, urinary, and breast cancer rates increased with ecological disintegrity, but genital and oral cancer rates did not. Smoking, poverty, and urbanization were significantly related to total cancer mortality, but did not explain the observed relationships between ecological integrity and cancer. Coal mining was significantly associated with ecological disintegrity and higher cancer mortality.Spatial analyses also revealed cancer clusters that corresponded to areas of high coal mining intensity. Our results demonstrated significant relationships between ecological integrity and human cancer mortality in West Virginia, and suggested important effects of coal mining on ecological communities and public health.Assessments of ecological integrity therefore may contribute not only to monitoring goals for aquatic life, but also may provide valuable insights for human health and safety.

show abstract

“…Improvements in water quality are primarily driven by biological processes completed by organisms within the water bodies (Yoder & Rankin, 1998). If the amount of nutrient enriched waters to the lakes would be limited such as in Lake Skomielno maintaining good ecological status of lakes is possible.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Untitled

Sender¹

2018

Turk. J. Fish. Aquat. Sci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The Wieprz-Krzna drainage and irrigation canal was created in the early 1960s highly complicated water relations and the hydrological systems of the Polesie region of Eastern Poland. The highest level of degradation occurred in the hydrogenic areas of the Łęczna-Włodawa Lake District. The aim of this study was to complete a qualitative and quantitative analyses of changes from 1959 to present of vascular plants in lakes influenced by the drainage system. In addition, an evaluation of the lakes' ecological status was conducted and comparisons between lakes transformed into reservoirs, embanked lakes, and natural lakes were made. Based on RI values that are used to determine ecological status, in 1959 all of the eight lakes reached good or high ecological status but in 2015 only two remained in this classification. The extensive changes observed in the macrophyte plant communities within all lakes in the study, indicates a progressive process of overgrowth in both natural and transformed lakes. Agricultural water inputs from the WKCS into lakes has lead to their slow but differentiated degradation. The greatest changes within the studied eutrophic and hypertrophic lakes studied have occurred in lakes converted to retention reservoirs.

show abstract

The Role of Biological Indicators in a State Water Quality Management Process

Cited by 57 publications

References 12 publications

Benthic Biomonitoring in Arctic Tundra Streams: A Community-Based Approach in Iqaluit, Nunavut, Canada

Benthic Biomonitoring in Arctic Tundra Streams: A Community-Based Approach in Iqaluit, Nunavut, Canada

Ecological Integrity of Streams Related to Human Cancer Mortality Rates

Untitled

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About