Biological monitoring of water quality in Australia: Workshop summary and future directions

Abstract Biological methods are widely accepted in water quality monitoring programmes worldwide; however, some concern remains over their effectiveness in predicting the effects of contaminants on aquatic ecosystems. While the so-called‘early warning’ approaches, such as bioassays and biomarkers, have been used in Australia to demonstrate mechanisms of toxic action and exposure to contaminants, as elsewhere, little attempt has been made to link observed effects at these lower levels of biological organization to real impacts on aquatic systems. The ecological consequences of exposure to contaminants is undoubtedly best studied at higher levels of biological organization (i. e. at the population or community level). However, monitoring aquatic communities is labour intensive and inadequate for the early detection of impacts. Research is needed to identify links between the bioassessment measures used, so that changes at the lowest biological level (e. g. using biomarkers and bioassays) can be translated into likely‘real’ impacts on the aquatic system, as measured at the population or community level. Monitoring the genetic structure of populations of aquatic organisms, particularly invertebrates, may provide a potential link between subtle effects observed in bioassay tests and subsequent changes in population density and/or community structure. A streamlined approach to monitoring changes at the community level needs to be developed to improve predictive ability and to make this approach more responsive to the early detection and prevention of unacceptable impacts. In addition, research on the use of ecosystem level parameters, such as production/respiration ratios or community metabolism, should be undertaken to determine their suitability for routine biomonitoring of water quality in Australian inland waters.     

Large-scale assessments of river health using an Index of Biotic Integrity with low-diversity fish communities

1. Effective tools are needed to measure the ‘health’ of rivers at scales large enough to be useful for management. Indicators for assessing the complex of variables that constitutes river health need to be ecologically based, efficient, rapid and consistently applicable in different ecological regions. 2. A large-scale survey of rivers in New South Wales, Australia provided data to test the Index of Biotic Integrity (IBI). The IBI employs the fish-community attributes, identified using regional and river-size data, expected for a river reach of excellent environmental quality. It uses metrics based on species richness, abundance, community structure and the health of individual fish. IBI metrics were established to suit a relatively low-diversity and unspecialized freshwater fish fauna in south-eastern Australia, totalling 55 species. 3. The IBI was able to discriminate between relative levels of environmental quality within a diverse set of stream systems and four presumptive ecological regions. The index was validated by testing the repeatability of scores, and by comparison of IBI scores at eighty sites with an independent measure of potential catchment condition, the River Disturbance Index. 4. Assessments of metric performance showed that eleven of the twelve metrics contributed satisfactorily. One metric based on trophic guild performed poorly and should be deleted from the index. Six other recommendations are made to enhance the performance of the IBI. 5. Results show that, while all large rivers have been disturbed, rivers in the Murray region and those in many coastal montane areas are particularly degraded. 6. The IBI results presented here demonstrate a validated method for large-scale monitoring of river health based on a fish fauna of limited diversity, in the absence of suitable reference sites.     

应用生物完整性指数评价水生态系统健康的研究进展

生物完整性指数(IBI)法是评价水生态系统健康的一种重要且被广泛应用的方法.本文综述了生物完整性指数的指示物种选择原因、构建方法以及在水生态系统健康评价中的应用,并总结了现阶段生态系统评估常用的鱼类完整性指数（F_IBI）、底栖无脊椎动物完整性指数（B_IBI）和着生藻类完整性指数（P_IBI)中候选生物状况参数指标,提出了使用微生物完整性指数(M_IBI)评价水生态系统健康的可行性和必要性.     

Evaluating Effects of Contaminants on Fish Health at Multiple Levels of Biological Organization: Extrapolating from Lower to Higher Levels

Effects of environmental stressors such as contaminants on the health of aquatic ecosystems usually involve a series of biological responses ranging from the biomolecular/biochemical to the population and community levels. To establish relationships and to determine the feasibility of extrapolating between higher and lower levels of biological organization, spatial patterns in fish responses to contaminant loading were investigated in a stream receiving point-source discharges of various contaminants near its headwaters. Relationships among fish responses at four major levels of biological organization (biochemical/physiological, individual, population, and community levels) were evaluated relative to patterns in contaminant loading along the spatial gradient of the stream. Both individual and integrated response analysis demonstrated that bioindicators at several levels of biological organization displayed similar downstream patterns in their response to contaminant loading within the stream. Some of the bioindicator responses at lower levels of organization appear to be useful for the ecological risk assessment process because of their sensitivity and apparent relationships to higher levels. By identifying and establishing relationships between levels of biological organization we should be better able to understand the mechanisms of stress responses in ecological systems that could ultimately result in improved predictive capability of ecological risk assessment and also allow for more informed decisions regarding remedial actions.     

广西河池地区河流基于鱼类的生物完整性指数筛选及其环境质量评估

为促进生物完整性评价法在中国的应用,加强珠江上游广西河池地区河流环境质量监测,该研究以鱼类为研究对象,初步构建了包含21个指标在内的广西河池地区河流基于鱼类的生物完整性评价的指标体系。根据鱼类调查所收集数据,结合历史资料的记录,对这些指标进行筛选和赋值,最终确立了6个指标,用于建立适合广西河池地区河流的基于鱼类的生物完整性指标体系;应用此指标体系对该地区部分河流(河段)进行了评价。评价的结果表明,小环江鱼类完整性为好;红水河、龙江和大环江为一般;刁江为极差。评价的结果与河流受人为干扰的实际情况相吻合,研究构建的评价体系可供河池周边地区使用和借鉴。生物完整性评价是水域环境质量监测的重要手段,为使生物完整性评价更加科学和客观,应加强生物完整性与环境因子之间关系的研究。     

基于鱼类物种状况的长江生态环境质量评估

鱼类是水域生态系统的重要组成部分, 也是水域生态环境良好的指示类群。为合理评估长江生态环境的现状和变化趋势, 文章提出将土著鱼类物种数和珍稀特有鱼类物种数作为评价指标, 并建立了相关的评价基准和等级划分标准。以2010年和2020年为评价年, 评估了长江干流及代表性重点水域的生态环境质量。结果显示, 当前长江上游干流和下游干流的生态环境质量优于中游; 支流赤水河的生态环境质量良好, 大型湖泊鄱阳湖的生态环境质量中等。从时间上看, 随着长江十年禁渔等一系列保护措施的实施, 长江干流的生态环境质量有不同程度地好转。在此基础上, 提出了进一步改善长江生态环境的对策与建议。     

The Need for Multiple Lines of Evidence for Predicting Site-Specific Ecological Effects

The goal of this paper is to illustrate the value and importance of the “weight of evidence” approach (use of multiple lines of evidence from field and laboratory data) to assess the occurrence or absence of ecological impairment in the aquatic environment. Single species toxicity tests, microcosms, and community metric approaches such as the Index of Biotic Integrity (IBI) are discussed. Single species toxicity tests or other single lines of evidence are valuable first tier assessments that should be used as screening tools to identify potentially toxic conditions in a effluent or the ambient environment but these tests should not be used as the final quantitative indicator of absolute ecological impairment that may result in regulatory action. Both false positive and false negative predictions of ecological effects can occur due to the inherent variability of measurement endpoints such as survival, growth and reproduction used in single species toxicity tests. A comparison of single species ambient toxicity test results with field data showed that false positives are common and likely related to experimental variability or toxicity to selected test species without measureable effects on the ecosystem. Results from microcosm studies have consistently demonstrated that chemical exposures exceeding the acute or chronic toxicity concentrations for highly sensitive species may cause little or no ecologically significant damage to an aquatic ecosystem. Sources of uncertainty identified when extrapolating from single species tests to ecological effects were: variability in individual response to pesticide exposure; variation among species in sensitivity to pesticides; effects of time varying and repeated exposures; and extrapolation from individual to population-level endpoints. Data sets from the Chesapeake Bay area (Maryland) were used to show the importance of using “multiple lines of evidence” when assessing biological impact due to conflicting results reported from ambient water column and sediment toxicity tests and biological indices (benthic and fish IBIs). Results from water column and sediment toxicity tests with multiple species in tidal areas showed that no single species was consistently the most sensitive. There was also a high degree of disagreement between benthic and fish IBI data for the various stations. The lack of agreement for these biological community indices is not surprising due to the differences in exposure among habitats occupied by these different taxonomic assemblages. Data from a fish IBI, benthic IBI and Maryland Physical Habitat Index (MPHI) were compared for approximately 1100 first through third-order Maryland non-tidal streams to show the complexity of data interpretation and the incidence of conflicting lines of evidence. A key finding from this non-tidal data set was the need for using more than one biological indicator to increase the discriminatory power of identifying impaired streams and reduce the possibility of “false negative results”. Based on historical data, temporal variability associated with an IBI in undisturbed areas was reported to be lower than the variability associated with single species toxicity tests.     

Long-term changes in ecosystem health of two Hudson Valley watersheds, New York, USA, 1936–2001

We examined long-term ecological change in two Hudson River tributaries, the Wappinger and Fishkill Creek watersheds in Dutchess County, New York State. Fish data spanning 65 years (1936, 1988, 1992, and 2001) and shorter term macroinvertebrate data (1988, 2001) were used to assess the influence of land use practices. Between 1988 and 2001, macroinvertebrate index Biotic Assessment Profile (BAP) improved by 113–165% in the Fishkill Creek watershed, and fish Index of Biotic Integrity (IBI) improved by 117–140%. Fish IBI and fish species richness were significantly different (p < 0.01) between the watersheds, with Wappinger Creek in better condition. Long-term fish IBI scores showed degradation in both watersheds since the 1930s. Changes in species composition suggest community homogenization on par with overall changes in the fish fauna of New York. Most notable were increases in tolerant species and declines in intolerant or moderately tolerant species. Whereas Fishkill Creek IBIs showed decline in 1988 relative to 1936, followed by improvement, Wappinger Creek declined monotonically in environmental quality. Development has intensified in both watersheds, but Fishkill Creek is improving while Wappinger Creek watershed is undergoing less mitigated degradation. We find that older, semi-quantitative data can be used to construct environmental quality indicators, and can be of great use for measuring long-term change.     

A multi‐metric fish index to assess the environmental condition of estuaries

The development of a multi‐metric fish index, the Estuarine Fish Community Index (EFCI), for assessing estuarine environments is described. The index comprises 14 metrics or measures that represent four broad fish community attributes: species diversity and composition, species abundance, nursery function and trophic integrity. The individual metrics were evaluated using data that were collected on a South African estuary that was degraded and in which rehabilitation measures were implemented. The evaluation suggested that the selected metrics adequately measure the condition of separate but related components of estuarine fish communities and that these reflect environmental condition. Reference conditions and metric thresholds were derived from fish community data collected during an extensive national study. The final multi‐metric index was then constructed and evaluated. The EFCI combines both structural and functional attributes of estuarine fish communities and integrates these to provide both a robust and sensitive method for assessing the ecological condition of estuarine systems. It is also an effective communication tool for converting ecological information into an easily understood format for managers, policy makers and the general public.     

Key factors determining water quality,fish community dynamics,and the ecological health in an Asian temperate lotic system

Identifying the key determinants and their impacts on water quality and fish community structure is imperative to environmental assessment and ecosystem conservation. The main objectives of this study were to assess the factors driving water quality, fish assemblages, and ecological health in a temperate lotic ecosystem using a long-term (12 years) dataset. The results indicate that sewage treatment plants significantly negatively impact river water quality and are primary pollution sources. Temporal fluctuations showed that the summer monsoon adversely influenced TN and EC due to dilution effects while increasing the COD and TSS in the water. Annual variations and the Mann–Kendall test demonstrated increasing trends in COD, TN:TP ratio, and CHL-a but a decreasing trend of TP with the impoundment. Artificial barriers (weirs) in the river created more favorable algal growth conditions due to increased water residence time. COD and TSS levels in the river were significantly affected by soil erosion. The environmental disturbance measures index indicated that all sites were severely degraded. Fish composition analysis suggested that exotic fish species such as, Lepomis macrochirus and Micropterus salmoides, dominated the community structure and negatively impacted native species after the installation of weirs. Our findings indicate that fish guilds and the IBI model are controlled by nutrient enrichment, organic matter, algal production, and land use/land cover. Water quality governs the biological health of the river. Overall, evaluation of the river's ecological health based on the multi-metric WPI and the IBI revealed that the river has a “poor” to “very poor” ecological status. The outcomes of this study may aid policymakers in managing and restoring the river.     

Interpreting coral reef monitoring data: A guide for improved management decisions

Coral reef monitoring programmes exist in all regions of the world, recording reef attributes such as coral cover, fish biomass and macroalgal cover. Given the cost of such monitoring programs, and the degraded state of many of the world’s reefs, understanding how reef monitoring data can be used to shape management decisions for coral reefs is a high priority. However, there is no general guide to understanding the ecological implications of the data in a format that can trigger a management response. We attempt to provide such a guide for interpreting the temporal trends in 41 coral reef monitoring attributes, recorded by seven of the largest reef monitoring programmes. We show that only a small subset of these attributes is required to identify the stressors that have impacted a reef (i.e. provide a diagnosis), as well as to estimate the likely recovery potential (prognosis). Two of the most useful indicators, turf algal canopy height and coral colony growth rate are not commonly measured, and we strongly recommend their inclusion in reef monitoring. The diagnosis and prognosis system that we have developed may help guide management actions and provides a foundation for further development as biological and ecological insights continue to grow.     

模拟水生态系统及其在环境研究中的应用

随着70年代污染生态毒理学的发展,微宇宙作为评价化学品的环境影响的有力工具日益受到重视。由于从点源和非点源释放的化学物质可经直接或间接途径进入水生态系统,水生微宇宙在环境研究中的应用发展很快。早期的研究工作侧重于化学污染物在水环境的归宿。自70年代末以来,研究注意力逐渐集中于有毒物质在水生态系统内不同生物学组织水平上的生态学效应。本文分下列4个方面进行述评:(1)关于模拟生态系统的若干基本概念;(2)应用于环境研究的不同类型水生微宇宙;(3)尚有争议的若干问题;(4)水生微宇宙技术应用的新动向和展望。     

鱼类多样性监测的理论方法及中国内陆 水体鱼类多样性监测

近年来, 生物多样性监测网络的建设得到广泛重视, 全球、地区或国家生物多样性观测网不断组建。生物多样性观测的理论框架得到发展, 提出了生物多样性核心监测指标(Essential Biodiversity Variables, EBV)。鱼类多样性监测的理论框架包含于生物多样性核心监测指标之内, 在遗传、物种、生态系统等多层次进行。基于鱼类监测提出的生物完整性指数(index of biotic integrity, IBI)强调不同物种的生态功能, 可以综合反映群落结构和功能的变化, 得到广泛应用。鱼类多样性的监测方法是传统网具和现代水声学等方法的结合。监测结果的分析可以进行简单的指数比较, 也可以进行长期的趋势分析, 寻找关键节点, 探讨宏观生态格局的变化。中国内陆水体鱼类多样性监测网隶属于中国生物多样性监测与研究网络, 拟选取长江、黄河、黑龙江、珠江、澜沧江、怒江、塔里木河及青海湖8大流域, 对25个重要区域和24个重点物种(类群)进行监测, 从重要区域鱼类群落结构、重点物种(类群)种群动态和个体生物学特征、遗传多样性、早期资源等不同层次, 全面监测我国内陆水体鱼类生物多样性状况。     

Fish as proxies of ecological and environmental change

Anthropogenic impacts have shifted aquatic ecosystems far from prehistoric baseline states; yet, understanding these impacts is impeded by a lack of available long-term data that realistically reflects the organisms and their habitats prior to human disturbance. Fish are excellent, and largely underused, proxies for elucidating the degree, direction and scale of shifts in aquatic ecosystems. This paper highlights potential sources of qualitative and quantitative data derived from contemporary, archived and ancient fish samples, and then, using key examples, discusses the types of long-term temporal information that can be obtained. This paper identifies future research needs with a focus on the Southern Hemisphere, as baseline shifts are poorly described relative to the Northern Hemisphere. Temporal data sourced from fish can improve our understanding of how aquatic ecosystems have changed, particularly when multiple sources of data are used, enhancing our ability to interpret the current state of aquatic ecosystems and establish effective measures to safeguard against further adverse shifts. The range of biological, ecological and environmental data obtained from fish can be integrated to better define ecosystem baseline states on which to establish policy goals for future conservation and exploitation practices.     

Health status of Pomatoschistus microps populations in relation to pollution and natural stressors: implications for ecological risk assessment

Effects induced on wild populations by recurrent environmental contamination may difficult the ecological risk assessment of punctual pollution events such as oil spills. Here, the issue was addressed by comparing the health status of Pomatoschistus microps populations from four NW Iberian estuaries, using an integrated chemical–biological monitoring. Despite high seasonal variability, the parameters measured discriminated estuaries with different contamination levels and associated biological effects with chemical and abiotic stress. The decreased health status of fish from polluted sites strengthens the need of considering pollution-induced background effects and seasonal variability when assessing impacts and risks of oil and other chemical spills.     

Spatial patterns of the biological traits of freshwater fish communities in south‐west France

Spatial patterns in the combinations of biological traits of fish communities were studied in the Garonne River system (57 000 km², south‐west France). Fish species assemblages were recorded at 554 sampling sites, and the biological traits of species were described using a fuzzy‐coding method. A co‐inertia analysis of species distributions and biological traits identified some spatial patterns of species trait combinations. Fish species richness progressively increased from up‐ to downstream sections, and the longitudinal patterns of fish assemblages partitioned the river into clear biogeographic areas, such as the brown trout Salmo trutta (headwater streams), the grayling Thymallus thymallus , the barbel Barbus barbus and the bream Abramis brama zones (most downstream sections), which fitted with Huet's well‐known zonation for western European rivers. Only a few biological traits, chiefly related to life‐history attributes, significantly influenced the observed fish distributions. Fecundity, potential size, maximum age and reproductive factor increased from headwater to plain reaches. As a theoretical framework for assessing and predicting the functional organization of stream fish communities, spatial variations in species traits can be related to habitat conditions, thus providing explicit spatial schemes that may be useful to the design of both scientific studies and river management.     

Biogeography of benthic macroinvertebrates in estuaries along the Gulf of Mexico and western Atlantic coasts1,2

A multimetric fish Index of Biotic Integrity (IBI) was composed to assess the biotic integrity of Flandrian water bodies. As fish communities differ substantially between standing waters, running waters of the bream zone and running waters of the barbel zone, eight candidate metrics for each of these water types or zones were identified, representing three major classes of biological attributes. These are species richness and composition, fish condition and abundance, trophic composition. The metrics were tested and modified where needed. The IBI was applied throughout Flanders on 104 locations in standing waters, 500 locations in waters of the bream zone and 257 locations in waters of the barbel zone. Standing waters scored substantially different from running waters. Standing waters rarely contained no fish at all, but their fish communities were very often poor to very poor. Waters of the bream and barbel zone were often fishless (respectively 40% and 35% of all locations contain no fish), but the locations with fish usually scored reasonable to poor. Only 18.5% of all locations were classified as reasonable to excellent (IBI classes 4 or lower on a scale from 1 to 9) and were considered to satisfy the basic ecological quality demands. The Leie-, Dijle-, Dender- and Schelde-basins had a very poor quality (more than 50% of the locations contained no fish). The Maas-, Grote and Kleine Nete-basins scored rather well, with respectively, 44%, 48% and 68% of the locations achieving an IBI of 4 or lower. The IBI is a valuable and complementary tool to assess the ecological quality of water bodies as suggested in the proposal for a Water Framework Directive by the European Commission.     

Soundscape diversity in the Great Barrier Reef: Lizard Island,a case study

Passive acoustic monitoring can provide valuable information on coral reefs, and examining the acoustic attributes of these ecosystems has the potential to provide an insight into their status and condition. From 2014 to 2016, a series of underwater recordings were taken at field sites around Lizard Island in the Great Barrier Reef, Australia. Six individual fish choruses were identified where each chorus displayed distinct acoustic characteristics. Choruses exhibited diurnal activity and some field sites displayed consistently higher diversity of choruses and levels than others, suggesting that particular locations are important aggregation areas for soniferous fish species. During peak activity, choruses were a prominent component of reef soundscapes, where received levels of a chorus reached upwards of 120 dB re 1μPa rms over the 450–650 Hz band, equating to a 40 dB increase above ambient noise levels of ≈80 dB re 1μPa rms. Three out of the six detected choruses exhibited spectral and temporal characteristics similar to choruses previously documented at these sites and elsewhere, produced by planktivorous fish species. Three of these choruses appear to be undocumented and could hold information on the presence, abundance and dispersal patterns of important fish species, which may have potential long-term management applications. Future research should focus on extricating the temporal patterns associated with bioacoustic activity and determining the potential environmental drivers of biological choruses. Additionally, developing appropriate techniques for direct identification of vocalizing species would strongly increase the management applicability of passive acoustic monitoring.     

Modification of an index of biotic integrity based on fish assemblages to characterize rivers of the Seine Basin,France

The Index of Biotic Integrity (IBI) is a measure of fish assemblage health that has been used to assess catchment and stream quality throughout North America. It reflects human perturbations on natural environmental structures and processes. While preserving the ecological foundation of the original North American metrics, we have modified and adapted the IBI to the mainstem Seine River and its major tributaries in France. This successful modification of the IBI to a considerably different fish fauna on a different continent further supports its wider use outside the midwestern United States. Using data collected in 1967, 1981, and 1988–1989 from a total of 46 sites, we show spatial and temporal variation in the Seine as indicated by IBI scores. Statistically significant relationships were found between IBI and catchment area but insignificant relationships existed between IBI and an independent Water Quality Index (WQI) based on water chemistry. Comparisons between the IBI and the WQI indicate that the former is a more sensitive and robust measure of water body quality. Our results demonstrate that the IBI, combined with a statistically designed national monitoring program, would offer a reliable means of assessing spatial patterns and temporal trends in water body improvement or degradation in France. The more primitive fish families in the Basin were affected first by perturbations. These families include all the diadromous species found in the Seine and suggest serious disruption of their life histories.