In this study, we assess the potential of ants as bioindicators riparian ecological health in two river types (upland and lowland type) located Catalonian region. We proposed to understand what extent do metrics based on ant responses provide useful information that cannot be presented by traditional biophysical assessments while attempting an approach creating ant-based multimetric index (ant-...

Biological Monitoring is a newly published book whose chief aim is to provide an overview on the current knowledge of biological monitoring by evaluating the quality of ecosystems and human health. The book, edited and mostly written by Marcelo Enrique Conti, is composed of seven relatively dense chapters that deal mostly with monitoring ecosystem changes that result from environmental insults....

Atmosphere, earth and water compose the environment. The presence of heavy metals in the environment has grown because of their large employment in some industrial and agricultural activities. Although these metals are terrestrial products, they flow into the sea through effluents and sewage or are directly discharged from industries placed on the seawater front. It should be considered that me...

Although amphibians have been widely promoted as indicators of biodiversity and environmental change, rigorous tests are lacking. Here key indicator criteria are distilled from published papers, and a species that has been promoted as a bioindicator, the great crested newt, is tested against them. Although a link was established between the presence of great crested newts and aquatic plant dive...

The aim of the study was to evaluate the use of leeches of the genus Erpobdella as a means of assessing polychlorinated biphenyl contamination of watercourses. The River Skalice, heavily contaminated with PCBs, was selected as a model. The source of contamination was a road gravel processing factory in Rožmitál pod Třemšínem from which an estimated 1 metric ton of PCBs leaked in 1986. Levels of...

Here we explore how waggle dance decoding may be applied as a tool for ecology by evaluating the benefits and limitations of the methodology compared to other existing ways to evaluate the honey bees’ use of the landscape. The honey bee foragers sample and “report” back on large areas (c. 100 km2). Because honey bees perform dances only for the most profitable resources, these data provide spat...

Bioindicators are species used to appraise the health conditions of the environment or ecosystem and they are capable of determining the environmental integrity using their functions and populations. In preserving and managing the natural surroundings, it is imperative to monitor the condition of many components of the ecological unit. Under normal circumstance, conservation advocators would be...