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Documenting taxonomic data quality for field fish identifications: a proposal for national surveys
Citation:
Stribling, J. B., J. E. FLOTEMERSCH, R. M. Hughes, L. REYNOLDS, T. SMITH, B. D. Snyder, E. TARQUINIO, AND C. O. Yoder. Documenting taxonomic data quality for field fish identifications: a proposal for national surveys. Presented at Sixth National Water Quality Monitoring Council, Atlantic City, NJ, May 18 - 22, 2008.
Impact/Purpose:
The purpose of this research project is to provide methods, tools and guidance to Regions, States and Tribes to support the TMDL program. This research will investigate new measurement methods and models to link stressors to biological responses and will use existing data and knowledge to develop strategies to determine the causes of biological impairment in rivers and streams. Research will be performed across multiple spatial scales, site, subwatershed, watershed, basin, ecoregion and regional/state.
Description:
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is in the midst of a multiyear series of natinal surveys of water resource conditions. Because communicating ecological condition is the primary objective of the surveys, quantitative biological indicators are key. Thus, if raw taxonomic data (identifications and counts) used to calculate the indicators are of unknown quality, they have the potential of compromising the credibility and defensibility of the survey results. For the National Rivers and Streams Survey (NRS), fish assemblage samples will be collected from approximately 2000 river and stream sites over a 2-year period, beginning in 2008. To date, issues of taxonomic data quality for fish in biological assessments have been focused on verification of questionable specimens, that is, only for specimens the person performing the primary identifications thinks necessary. As part of the NRS, the vouchering system for the fish assemblage samples will be the species that is rare, threatened, or endangered; ubiquitous, common, and distinct; or very large-bodied. For all others, at least one specimen will be preserved to represent the species. Sample vouchers, thus, will be a combination of preserved specimens and digital images that regional experts can use to reconstruct a complete taxa list for each site. Our proposal is to have whole-sample species lists reproduced from a sample voucher by regional experts. Direct comparison of the taxa list from the voucher with that produced from the field will allow quantification of rates of differences, by sample as well as highlighting those species most frequently causing problems. This will be performed on a randomly-selected 10% of the samples for each field taxonomist. Discrepancies between the two lists will be examined, and reasons for the differences determined. Based on the comparison results, corrective actions will be developed and lead to updating of the database, and potentially, initiatives focused on training for identification of certain taxa.