scholarly journals Effect of environmental quality and mesohabitat structure on a Biotic Integrity Index based on fish assemblages of cerrado streams from Rio Cuiabá basin, Brazil

2011 ◽  
Vol 71 (3) ◽  
pp. 577-586 ◽  
Author(s):  
NG Machado ◽  
EM. Venticinque ◽  
J. Penha

Over the last 30 years, the Cerrado has been experiencing various antropic impacts that have brought about alterations to species composition, structure and functioning of aquatic habitats. Therefore, studies on negative impacts are useful to prevent future damage and restore environmental quality. The objectives of our study were: i) to adapt an index of biotic integrity of streams in the Rio Cuiabá Basin and ii) to analyze if the Index of Biotic Integrity (IBI) correlated with the environmental quality measured by the Index of Environmental Quality (IEQ) and with the mesohabitat structure. We sampled 26 streams in sub-basins of the Cuiabá River. In each stream, we closed a stretch of 50 m with blockage nets and used electrofishing to capture fish. To obtain a measure of environmental quality in sampled units, we characterized the stream and its micro basin. For the analyses, we used the Spearman Correlation, Kruskal-Wallis test and Analysis of Multiple Regression. We collected 697 individuals distributed into 6 orders, 15 families and 49 species. The IBI followed changes on environmental quality measured by IEQ when we removed streams that present natural barriers from the analysis (r² = 0.4; r² = 0.58). Types of land use did not affect the biotic integrity (n = 26; df = 4; H = 4,860; p = 0.302), but natural and artificial barriers affected it (n = 26; df = 4; H = 11,027; p = 0.026). The IBI was not sensitive to variations in mesohabitat structure (F2,23 = 0.373; r² = 0.031; Axe 1 p = 0.620; Axe 2 p = 0.490). The IBI is certainly a reasonable instrument for evaluating changes in the environment, but we cannot ignore the fact that we were able to obtain the same result with any combinations of metrics. This makes its analysis and interpretation difficult.

Author(s):  
Xing Wang ◽  
Binghui Zheng ◽  
Lusan Liu ◽  
Lijing Wang

<p>A Lake Multi-biotic Integrity Index (LMII) for the China’s second largest interior lake (Dongting Lake) was developed to assess the water quality status using algal and macroinvertebrate metrics. Algae and benthic macroinvertebrate assemblages were sampled at 10 sections across 3 subregions of Dongting Lake. We used a stepwise process to evaluate properties of candidate metrics and selected ten for the LMII: Pampean diatom index, diatom quotient, trophic diatom index, relative abundance diatoms, Margalef index of algae, percent sensitive diatoms, % facultative individuals, % Chironomidae individuals, % predators individuals, and total number of macroinvertebrate taxa. We then tested the accuracy and feasibility of the LMII by comparing the correlation with physical-chemical parameters. Evaluation of the LMII showed that it discriminated well between reference and impaired sections and was strongly related to the major chemical and physical stressors (r = 0.766, P&lt;0.001). The re-scored results from the 10 sections showed that the water quality of western Dongting Lake was good, while that of southern Dongting Lake was relatively good and whereas that of eastern Dongting Lake was poor. The discriminatory biocriteria of the LMII are suitable for the assessment of the water quality of Dongting Lake. Additionally, more metrics belonging to habitat, hydrology, physics and chemistry should be considered into the LMII, so as to establish comprehensive assessment system which can reflect the community structure of aquatic organisms, physical and chemical characteristics of water environment, human activities, and so on.</p>


Estuaries ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 601 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda A. Deegan ◽  
John T. Finn ◽  
Suzanne G. Ayvazian ◽  
Cheryl A. Ryder-Kieffer ◽  
John Buonaccorsi

Hydrobiologia ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 623 (1) ◽  
pp. 173-189 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lilian Casatti ◽  
Cristiane P. Ferreira ◽  
Francisco Langeani

2020 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 442-451
Author(s):  
S Buhungu ◽  
C Sibomana ◽  
DC Adjahouinou ◽  
G Ntakimazi ◽  
CA Bonou ◽  
...  

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