Citation:

Macedo, D., R. Ligeiro, W. Ferreira, N. Junqueira, B. Sanches, D. Silva, C. Alves, R. Hughes, P. Kaufmann, P. Pompeu, G. Santos, AND M. Callisto. Parâmetros biológicos e de habitats físicos para avaliação de bacias no Sudeste do Brasil. Ação Ambiental of a protocol for evaluating land use, physical habitat structure, and fish and macroinvertebrate assemblages in Brazilian river basins”). Ação Ambiental. Universidade Federal de Viçosa, , Brazil, 47:15-18, (2012).

Impact/Purpose:

This article, aimed at the Brazilian journal Ação Ambiental (“Environmental Action”), describes a pilot study undertaken in Brazil, in collaboration with EPA researchers at WED. The pilot study was undertaken in sub-tropical wadeable and non-wadeable waters of a large reservoir basin in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, using sample design and field methods very similar to those used by the USEPA Office of Water in their National Aquatic Resources Surveys (NARS). The study is an external validation of ecological monitoring and assessment concepts, designs, and methods applied by the EPA Office of Water in the National Aquatic Resource Surveys (NARS). General findings of the study were that multidisciplinary ecological evaluation, systematic-random site selection, and NARS-style site-scale field methods can lead to rigorous, quantitative ecological assessments that can serve as a model for evaluating the ecological condition of all surface waters in the state of Minas Gerais and subsequently all of Brazil.

Description:

ABSTRACT: This article has no abstract, in keeping with the format of the Brazilian journal Ação Ambiental, an applied-science news journal aimed at environmental engineers and managers of water and fisheries resources. Here is a rough synopsis of the article in English: A pilot study was undertaken in sub-tropical wadeable and unwadeable waters of a large reservoir basin in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil using sample design and field methods very similar to those used by the USEPA Office of Water in their National Aquatic Resources Surveys (NARS). Several lessons were learned from this pilot study. Our results are important for estimating the number of sites needed for estimating fish species richness and macroinvertebrate family richness in cerrado river basins. Previous surveys in Brazil with fewer sampling sites and less sampling effort per site were insufficient for estimating the taxonomic richness of fish and macroinvertebrate assemblages in streams and reservoirs of a basin. In USA basins, 17-49 sites were estimated to be sufficient for assessing fish species richness in wadeable streams, and 15-20 sites were needed in unwadeable rivers, and for estimating the taxa richness of benthic macroinvertebrates, 20 sites were still insufficient in non-wadeable rivers. We found it valuable to assess aquatic biota across an environmental gradient by employing a systematic random design both for site selection and site-scale sampling. Such an approach ensures a more representative sample that can be inferred to the entire population of mapped wadeable streams with known confidence limits. A rigorous, standardized, quantitative, low-cost, and relatively rapid field methodology aided 3 field teams in sampling 3 stream sites and multiple reservoir sites each day for 2 weeks. Our multidisciplinary ecological evaluation integrated multiple graduate and undergraduate student skills and spatial scales in sample collection and processing. Sharing the

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