yes offcourse, presence of chironomous larave indicate the level of pollution, simulatenously freshwater crabs with whom i am concenrend also revealed the level of pollution

Yes, and it very common in Europe at least. There are many methodologies and index, and I do not know if one is preferred. Most of them are similar but some are better suited to answer certain specific questions (evolution in time, comparison between sites etc.). Basically, you select a definite number of sites in a stream, according to their characteristics (current velocity, substrate etc). Sampling consists of placing a Surber stream bottom sampler (or similar) in each station and collecting drifting invertebrates. Water quality is later assessed through taxonomic richness, total number of individuals, the presence/absence of certain pollution sensitive families etc.

In France, the IBGN (Indice Biologique Global Normalisé) is used and you can find good documentation on the subject: www.km-dev.com/eaufrance/francais/.../pdf/IBGN.pdf

Best regards,

Nicolas

Yes, benthic invertebrates can be used to assess water quality, but your question is very general, you can find a lot of material on the internet.

Its very common across the world; try rivpacs in britain, usa epa, ausrivas in australia ...

Yes, Benthic invertebrates can be used as indicator species of water quality. So many studies have been carried out using different species of gastropods, brachyuran crabs, hermit crabs etc

Yes, a long history of their utility in assessing water quality in rivers/streams. The US EPA is also using them to assess lakes (http://water.epa.gov/type/lakes/lakessurvey_index.cfm).

A few early and good references for streams/rivers:

Chutter, F.M. (1972) An empirical biotic index of the quality of water in South African streams and rivers. Water Research, 6, 19-30.

Hilsenhoff, W.L. (1987) An improved biotic index of organic stream pollution. The Great Lakes Entomologist, 20, 31-39.

Barbour, M.T., Gerritsen, J., Snyder, B.D. & Stribling, J.B. (1999) Rapid bioassessment protocols for use in streams and wadeable rivers: periphyton, benthic macroinvertebrates and fish, second edition. In, p. 204. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; Office of Water, Washington D.C.

A book that reviews the topic:

Rosenberg, D.M. & Resh, V.H. (1993) Freshwater biomonitoring and benthic macroinvertebrates. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston, Massachusetts.

Olá Kathryn,

I wish you long peace and love. Kathry we have the same second name. Just you have it in English and I in Portuguese: Noelle = Noélia.

Well, yes it can. Macroinvertebrate is a very good indicators of stream health. Here, in Brasil there are a lot of papers that talk about.

See:

1 – OLIVEIRA, D., GOMES,V & CALLISTO, M. Benthic macroinvertebrates as ecological indicators of water level changes in marginal lagoons at lower São Francisco floodplain river. Link to access: http://www.icb.ufmg.br/labs/benthos/index_arquivos/pdfs_pagina/deborah2009.pdf.

2 - MORETTI, M. S. & CALLISTO, M. Biomonitoring of benthic macroinvertebrates in the middle Doce River watershed. Acta Limnol. Bras., 17(3):267-281, 2005 . Link to access: http://www.ablimno.org.br/acta/pdf/acta_limnologica_contents1703E_files/Art04_17%283%29.pdf

3 - I would share you the ppt about Macroinvertebrates as Bioindicators of Stream Health. It is clear and talks about of Collection & Identification of Macroinvertebrates. This presentation was adapted from a Michigan Clean Water Corps (MiCorps) training presentation produced by Jo Latimore, Ph.D.

Link: http://wupcenter.mtu.edu/education/stream/Macroinvertebrate.pdf

Enjoy

Márcia Eler

Yeps...Some of them absorb and feed on non selective filter feeders... choose among sessile ones!

Yes it can be used, but to be on a safer side some other confirmatory organism or index should be used in addition to it. Because the absence of chironomus larva which is often quoted to indicate good water quality may actually mean otherwise in extreme cases of altered water quality.

yes. although the selection of specific organisms will be region-specific, often stream-specific. Typically, a survey of benthic inverts is carried out, ideally in an unimpacted stream and a literature survey done to identify what inverts live in the area, as well as seasonal presence/absence, if at all. Then that serves as the control condition, based upon which future monitoring can be done. This form of monitoring has the advantage of indicating the capacity of a stream to support diverse life forms, and so is an aggregate of flow and water quality conditions over time. However, there is a lack of databases of organisms for every stream on the planet; hopefully this will be attended to before we lose all our streams !

Yes. You can assess water quality by benthc invertebrates. But for a more accurate estimate you can use chemichal analysis simultaneously.

I published a paper in which a new biotic index was described according region-specific organisms.

Hi Katryn

Traditionally, invertebrates have received great attention in the study of health of lotic ecosystems. Especially, correlations between macro- or meio-faunal (invertebrate) community structures and environmental variables have been the subject of several studies in the past. However, for correct use of biological parameters, the community structure of the local fauna in a region and baseline water quality parameters of the area must be appropriately known.

Best

Dola

Some literature:

1. THORNE R. S., WILLIAMS W. P. The responce of benthic macroinvertebrate to pollution in developing countries: A multimetric system of bioassessment. Freshwater Biology. 13 (1), 57, 1997.

2. Kazanci G., Girgin S. Distribution of oligochaeta species as bioindicators of organic pollution in Ankara stream and their use in biomonitoring. Tr. J. zoology, 22, 83, 1998.

3. METCALFE J.L. Biological water quality assessment of running waters based on Macroinvertebrate communities: history and present status in Europe. Env. Pollution 60, 101, 1998.

4. HICKEYS C.W., CLEMENTS W. H. Effect of heavy metals on benthic macroinvertebrate communities in new zealand streams. Envir. Toxi. And Chem. 17 (11), 2338, 1999.

5. ZWEIG L. D., RABENI C. F. Biomonitoring for deposited using benthic invertebrates: a test on 4 Missouri streams. Journal of the north American Benthological Society. 20,

643, 2001.

Yes they can. In Texas some of our most conservative numbers are based on risk associated with contaminant interactions with benthics. I can send you our guidance document if you're interested. It's not available online at the moment because it's getting updated but it is a good place to start.

Yes they are. They are also consider as "bio-indicators" and preferably used to indicate water quality rather than fishes or plankton. This is because of their sedentary nature and life cycle. There are so many biotic indices which you can use to predict water quality. These indices are mainly based on scoring system. Moreover, every benthic taxa has a peculiar quality depending upon its habitat (whether polluted water of fresh water) on the basis of which it can be used to assess water quality. Some of the indices are Hilsenhoff's indices, Chandler score, MWQI (India), NEPBIOS.

Another reason why stream benthic invertebrates are often a suitable choice for some researchers is the fact that most of these benthic species are interstitial organisms otherwise called in-fauna i.e. they reside inside the sediments not on the sediments. This characteristic makes them have maximum contact with the sediments which is the major receptacle of waster substances entering the river system.

Thus their study gives a reasonable description of the state of the environment.