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DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATION OF A MACROINVERTEBRATE BIOTIC INTEGRITY INDEX (MBII) FOR REGIONALLY ASSESSING MID-ATLANTIC HIGHLANDS STREAMS
Citation:
Klemm, D J., K A. Blocksom, F A. Fulk, A. T. Herlihy, R M. Hughes, P R. Kaufmann, D V. Peck, J L. Stoddard, W T. Thoeny, M. B. Griffith, AND W. S. Davis. DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATION OF A MACROINVERTEBRATE BIOTIC INTEGRITY INDEX (MBII) FOR REGIONALLY ASSESSING MID-ATLANTIC HIGHLANDS STREAMS. ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT. Springer-Verlag, New York, NY, 31(5):656-669, (2003).
Impact/Purpose:
The goal of this research is to develop methods and indicators that are useful for evaluating the condition of aquatic communities, for assessing the restoration of aquatic communities in response to mitigation and best management practices, and for determining the exposure of aquatic communities to different classes of stressors (i.e., pesticides, sedimentation, habitat alteration).
Description:
The multimetric Macroinvertebrate Biotic Integrity Index (MBII) was developed from data collected at 574 wadeable stream reaches in the Mid-Atlantic Highlands region (MAHR) by the USEPA's Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (EMAP). Over 100 candidate metrics were evaluated for their range, precision, responsiveness to various disturbances, relationship to catchment area, and redundancy. Seven metrics were selected, representing taxa richness, assemblage composition, pollution tolerance, and a functional feeding group. We scored metrics and summed them, then ranked the resulting index through use of independently-evaluated reference stream reaches. Although sites were classified into lowland and upland ecoregional groups, we did not need to develop separate scoring criteria for each ecoregional group. We found that we could use the same metrics for pool and riffle composite samples, but we had to score them differently. Using the EMAP probability design, we inferred the results, with known confidence bounds, to the 167,797 kilometers of wadeable streams in the Mid-Atlantic Highlands. We classified 17% of the target stream length in the MAHR as good, 57% as fair, and 26% as poor. Pool-dominated reaches were relatively rare in the MAHR, and the usefulness of the MBII was more difficult to assess in these reaches. The MBII was effective in evaluating region-wide conditions and distinguishing clean and impaired reaches among both upland and lowland streams dominated by riffle habitat.