At a time when anthropogenic activities are increasingly disturbing the overall ecological integrity of freshwater ecosystems, monitoring of biological communities is central to assessing the health and function of streams. This study aimed to use a large nation-wide database to develop a multimetric index (the Korean Benthic macroinvertebrate Index of Biological Integrity—KB-IBI) applica...

Natural ecological variability and analytical design can bias the derived value of a biotic index through the variable influence of indicator body-size, abundance, richness, and ascribed tolerance scores. Descriptive statistics highlight this risk for 26 aquatic indicator systems; detailed analysis is provided for contrasting weighted-average indices applying the example of the BMWP, which has ...

The Biological Monitoring Working Party (BMWP) score system was introduced in 1980 to provide an index of river water quality for England and Wales based on aquatic macro-invertebrates. The score allocated to each taxon was set by a group of expert river biologists based upon their collective experience of the taxon’s sensitivity to organic pollution (Hawkes, 1997). This paper describes an obje...

Distribution of molluscs in the eastern part of the Persian Gulf were studied during the PG-GOOS cruise (Oct-Nov 2012), using the 250 cm2 Van Veen grab for sampling. Sixty gastropod and 23 bivalve taxa in addition to one scaphopod taxon were identified. Gastropods constituted 80% of molluscs. The abundance of molluscs averaged 1398.36 (±261.95) ind./m2. Costellaria sp. was the most abundant ...

Introduction: Chironomidae (Diptera) is the most widespread and abundant aquatic insect family in freshwater ecosystems. Chironomids are considered good indicators of water quality but seldom identified at genus level broad spatial scale studies. Objective: To identify environmental conditions associated with chironomids an altitudinal gradient. Methods: We compared ecoregions, river types, sea...

Water quality of the Babai River was assessed through surveying the aquatic invertebrate populations. Study was carried out at Royal Bardia National Park to observe the effect of irrigation dam on water quality through observing the aquatic benthic macro invertebrate’s composition and abundance. The Nepalese Biotic Score (NEPBIOS) method has been used for the biological water quality assessment...

The ecosystem of the Caspian Sea have been strikingly changed by human activities. This area has undergone significant ecological alterations and serious environmental degradation since the beginning of 1990s. The impact of fish cage culture on the zooplankton community was studied in the southwestern Caspian Sea, off Jafrud during January to April 2013. A total of 12 zooplankton belonging to 9...

In order to estimate the water quality of São Pedro stream, through distribution and composition of Chironomidae larvae present in the sediment four sampling sites were selected. In each sampling site, three sediment samples were collected within a period of twelve months using the Petersen (0.0189 m²) and the van Veen (0.0518 m²) dredges. Samples were washed through a sieve with a 0.21 mm mesh...

Invasive species can have negative effects on native biodiversity and ecosystem function, suppression is often required to minimize the effects. However, management actions suppress invasive may cause negative, unintended non-target taxa. Across United States, lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush) are in many freshwater ecosystems, reducing fish abundance diversity through predation competition. In...