Thomas P. Simon

Development of a Multimetric Index for Assessing the Biological Condition of the Ohio River

Abstract The use of fish communities to assess environmental quality is common for streams, but a standard methodology for large rivers is as yet largely undeveloped. We developed an index to assess the condition of fish assemblages along 1,580 km of the Ohio River. Representative samples of fish assemblages were collected from 709 Ohio River reaches, including 318 “least-impacted” sites, from 1991 to 2001 by means of standardized nighttime boat-electrofishing techniques. We evaluated 55 candidate metrics based on attributes of fish assemblage structure and function to derive a multimetric index of river health. We examined the spatial (by river kilometer) and temporal variability of these metrics and assessed their responsiveness to anthropogenic disturbances, namely, effluents, turbidity, and highly embedded substrates. The resulting Ohio River Fish Index (ORFIn) comprises 13 metrics selected because they responded predictably to measures of human disturbance or reflected desirable features of the Ohio ...

Influence of habitat, water quality, and land use on macro-invertebrate and fish assemblages of a southeastern coastal plain watershed, USA

Most states in the U.S. are currently developing methods for assessing the integrity of aquatic habitats through the development of regional biocriteria. While multimetric indices have been used to show community composition, pollution tolerance, species diversity, and trophic structure with a combined index, the specific environmental factors that drive biological communities may be better explained through the use of multivariate statistical techniques. Macroinvertebrate and fish assemblages were sampled along with water quality, landuse and qualitative and quantitative habitat assessments from forty-nine sites throughout the Choctawhatchee-Pea, a southeastern U.S. watershed. Multivariate statistical analyses of habitat, water quality, and land-use data were used to determine the relationship between environmental variables and the dependent biological variables, macroinvertebrate and fish community structure. Sampling of biological and environmental data showed that there was a great deal of homogeneity within the watershed, which complicated the task of identifying environmental influences on biological assemblages. Macro-invertebrate and fish assemblages of the Choctawhatchee-Pea watershed were similar in their response to environmental conditions with water chemistry having the greatest relationship to macro-invertebrate and fish community structure followed by instream habitat and land use.

A Multimetric Assessment of Stream Condition in the Northern Lakes and Forests Ecoregion Using Spatially Explicit Statistical Modeling and Regional Normalization

Abstract We sampled fish communities, water temperature, water chemistry, physical habitat, and catchment characteristics for 94 stream sites selected randomly throughout the Northern Lakes and Forests ecoregion and used those data to explicitly model reference conditions and assess ecological stream condition at each site via a regional normalization framework. The streams we sampled were first order through fourth order, and the catchments ranged from 0.9 to 458 km2. We developed multiple linear regression (MLR) models that predicted fish community metrics, water chemistry characteristics, and local physical habitat from catchment characteristics; we used these models to compare existing conditions with the conditions that would be expected based on the regression models. Our results indicated that the fish communities were relatively unimpaired because the catchment variables associated with human-induced land use change were important in only 1 of the 10 fish metric models. Agricultural land use was a...

A Benthic Community Index for streams in the Northern Lakes and Forests Ecoregion

Abstract Encompassing the northern glaciated section of the Midwest United States, the Northern Lakes and Forests Ecoregion is characterized by mixed conifer and deciduous forests and wetlands. Sites were randomly selected in the ecoregion using the Environmental Protection Agency’s Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program designed to develop an index of biotic integrity for wadeable streams. Macroinvertebrates were sampled during the fall of 1998 and 1999 using a multi-habitat, composite-sample method. Two hundred forty-six invertebrate taxa in 97 families were collected from 94 sites. Ten of 42 candidate metrics satisfied metric selection criteria, including six structural metrics (number of Ephemeroptera taxa, number of Diptera taxa, richness, Shannon–Wiener diversity, percent Trichoptera abundance, and percent Crustacea and Mollusca abundance), two functional metrics (number of Filterer taxa and number of Scraper taxa), and two conditional metrics (number of Ephemeroptera, Trichoptera, and Plecoptera taxa and Hilsenhoff Biotic Index). These metrics were used to develop a Benthic Community Index to assess the biological integrity of wadeable streams in the ecoregion. Index values ranged from 10 to 50, and scores from impaired sites were significantly different than non-impaired sites (P

The use of biological criteria as a tool for water resource management

Abstract The status of biological criteria in state and federal water quality programs suggest that the majority of North American resource types have at least a single multimetric index developed. Large rivers, wetlands, and lakes are in the process of being studied and reference conditions are being developed but have primarily been developed for the Midwest and Northeastern United States. Biological criteria can include a variety of biological indicators ranging from multimetric indices, univariate indices, standard zoological and botanical indicators, and predictive models. The use of biological models to predict local conditions can result in a variety of spatial scales that biological criteria can address. Biological criteria will be applied as a measure of water resource condition, as biological restoration goals, for enforcement and compliance, for establishing baseline for Natural Resource Damage Assessments (NRDA), for formulating predictive models, and by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for meeting the Government Performance and Results Act Goal 2b.

Development of multimetric indices of biotic integrity for riverine and palustrine wetland plant communities along Southern Lake Michigan

Riverine and palustrine wetland plant communities were examined in order to propose a multimetric plant index of biotic integrity. The objectives were to determine the structural and functional attributes of these wetland plant communities, calibrate reference conditions in assessing aquatic plant communities, provide methods for further development and testing of the index, and present a case study. The index is based on a rapid assessment method using the information collected from a species list and cover estimates. Sampling was done using a modified relevé sampling approach with a modified Braun-Blanquet Cover Abundance Scale Method for estimating percent cover. More than 20 characteristics of aquatic plant communities were evaluated and 12 metrics in five categories were developed. Structural metrics focused on community composition, key indicator species such as number of Carex and Potamogeton species, and guild type. Functional metrics included sensitivity and tolerance measures; percent emergent, pioneer, and obligate wetland species; and the number of weed species as a substitute metric. Abundance was estimated based on evenness of average cover densities. Individual condition was suggested as a measure of the lowest extremes of biotic integrity. Palustrine study sites ranged across a disturbance gradient from least-impacted to poor; riverine study sites ranged from high quality to some of the most degraded riverine sites in the Great Lakes region. Ninety-five species of aquatic vascular plants were found in 42 families. The most common families were Cyperaceae (15 species), Polygonaceae (9 species), and Juncaceae (6 species). Fourteen submergent, four floating, two woody and 75 emergent aquatic plant taxa were found. Five species were on the endangered, threatened, or rare list for the State of Indiana. Sites receiving the highest index scores included several of the a priori least-impacted sites while the lowest scores were located near-field to a large industrial landfill. The index will need to be further validated and tested but shows potential as a rapid index of biotic integrity using aquatic plant assemblages.

Variation in a Great River Index of Biotic Integrity over a 20-year period

The Index of Biotic Integrity (IBI) has proven to be an important assessment tool for evaluating the resource quality of aquatic ecosystems. We used a modified IBI for Great Rivers based on collections from the Wabash River in west-central Indiana. We evaluated natural, inherent variation in natural phenomena, gear effects and land use modification over a 20-year period. Sixty-three stations distributed through 260 km of river were sampled 2–3 times per year to evaluate fish community structure and function. Natural changes in variation included temporal variation, hydrologic cycle and recruitment. Our results suggest that removing gizzard shad, whose population levels fluctuate widely, from percentage metrics enhanced assessment and exposed subtle affects. IBI scores consistently declined in a downstream direction. IBI profiles based on numbers were almost always higher than those using biomass, but patterns corresponded well for both metric systems. Combining biomass catches by seining and electrofishing did not substantially change the observed patterns compared to numeric electrofishing catches. The large number of small species taken by seining overwhelmed the subtle patterns observed at least impacted stations, but greater departures in quality were evident at impaired downstream locations. Floods decimated fish communities throughout the river. Fish moved out of stressed areas during severe droughts and into areas near clean tributaries. Certain structured attributes of Great River fish communities showed statistically significant changes based on ecoregion scales. Total number of species, number of sensitive species, number of centrarchid species and percentage of simple lithophils declined between the Corn Belt Plain and Interior River Lowland ecoregions, but water quality factors might also be influential. These changes in metric attributes lowered IBI scores by 6–10 cumulative points.

Modification of an index of biotic integrity for assessing vernal ponds and small palustrine wetlands using fish, crayfish, and amphibian assemblages along southern Lake Michigan

Abstract We developed an index of biotic integrity (IBI) based on crayfish, fish, and amphibian assemblages to assess vernal ponds and palustrine wetland habitats of less than 5 ha along the southern shore of Lake Michigan. We found that the modified IBI based on three crayfish, twelve fish, and seven amphibian species collected during our surveys provided a more complete assessment than one based on any single taxonomic group. The new scoring criteria included the number of amphibian and fish species, number of benthic species, percent of individuals as pioneer species, percent of individuals as exotic species and percent of individuals with complex reproductive modes for metrics developed for larger palustrine wetlands. Low-end scoring procedures were not required; however, species composition metrics that did not possess the specified attribute received a ‘0’ score rather than a ‘1’. Correlation coefficients suggest that the reference conditions developed during this study of IBI metrics are able to di...

Habitat Influence on Fish Community Assemblage in an Agricultural Landscape in Four East Central Indiana Streams

ABSTRACT The objective of this study was to relate the quality of the fish community with habitat using the Index of Biotic Integrity (IBI) and Qualitative Habitat Evaluation Index (QHEI) in four agriculturally influenced streams in east central, Indiana. A total of 48 species was collected from 42 sites. IBI scores ranged from 14 to 48, and QHEI scores ranged from 29 to 83. There was a significant positive correlation between IBI and QHEI scores. Furthermore, we found significant positive correlations between IBI scores and four individual QHEI metrics (channel morphology, substrate, poollglide and riffletrun quality, and in-stream cover). Habitat influenced the fish assemblages with channelization and substrate being the primary structuring factors. The land use in this area is 70% agriculture, which has heavily influenced lotic character through anthropogenic practices.

Modification of an index of biotic integrity and development of reference condition expectations or dunal, palustrine wetland fish communities along the southern shore of Lake Michigan

Abstract I modified and calibrated an index of biotic integrity (IBI) to assess wetland quality of dunal, palustrine wetlands along the southern shore of Lake Michigan. Fish communities were sampled using a combination of electrofishing and seining techniques to collect a representative sample. A combination of 50 historical and recent sites were sampled from northeast. Illinois and northwest Indiana to develop reference expectations for dunal wetlands less than 35 ha surface area. I examined 36 attributes of wetland fish communities to derive a dunal, palustrine IBI. Several metrics from the original IBI were retained including: total number of species, number of sensitive species, and percent tolerant species. Trophic composition characters included the percentage of omnivores and insectivores. Fish condition was evaluated using the catch-per-unit of effort and the percentage of deformities, eroded fins, lesions, and tumours (DELT). Several metrics were modified from the original IBI to better reflect water resource quality in dunal wetlands. The number of darter species was replaced by a combination of the ecologically similar number of darter and madtom species; number of sunfish species was modified to the number of centrarchid species, which included the black bass species; number of sucker species was replaced by the number of minnow species since few sucker species were anticipated in dunal wetlands; and I substituted percent carnivores with percent pioneer species. Pioneer species reflect wetland stability and water permanence. Hybrids were not important constituents of wetland communities and did not show a relationship with wetland degradation, so I substituted the percentage of lake-obligate species to reflect species that were dominant in lentic waters.