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US EPA BIOMONITORING AND BIOINDICATOR CONCEPTS NEEDED TO EVALUATE THE BIOLOGICAL INTEGRITY OF AQUATIC SYSTEMS
Citation:
Lazorchak, J M., B H. Hill, B S. Brown, F H. McCormick, V Engle, D J. Lattier, M J. Bagley, M. B. Griffith, A. F. Maciorowski, AND G Toth. US EPA BIOMONITORING AND BIOINDICATOR CONCEPTS NEEDED TO EVALUATE THE BIOLOGICAL INTEGRITY OF AQUATIC SYSTEMS. Chapter 23, BA Markert, AM Breure and HG Zechmeiter (ed.), Bioindicators/Biomonitors - Principles, Assessments, Concepts, Volume 6, Part III: Trace Metals and Other Contaminants in the Environment. Elsevier Science Ltd, London, Uk, 6:831-873, (2003).
Impact/Purpose:
Description:
This chapter presents the current uses, concepts and anticipated future directions of biomonitoring and bioindicators in the regulatory and research programs of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA). The chapter provides a historical look on how biomonitoring and bioindicators evolved in the USEPA or its predecessor agencies from the 1960s - 1980s, then describes two current key biomonitoring and bioindicator programs, the USEPA Office of Research and Development?s Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (EMAP) and USEPA?s Office of Water?s Biocriteria Program. The remainder of the chapter is organized hierarchically beginning with concepts and monitoring approaches using fish, macroinvertebrates, and periphyton assemblages, and functional ecosystem measures. The assemblage approaches are followed by current research and regulatory use of whole organism toxicity testing assessments for measuring contamination in aquatic environments and remediation assessment. The chapter includes existing and proposed activities in the use of real-time biomonitoring to assess biological exposures to contaminants and other environmental changes. A new approach that uses small and large adult whole fish tissue as a bioindicatorl for assessing potential contaminant exposures to wildlife is presented, followed by a description of new research in molecular approaches to biomonitoring and bioindicators through measures of gene expression, use of microarrays and measures of genetic diversity.