Elsevier

Ecological Indicators

Volume 2, Issue 4, February 2003, Pages 325-338
Ecological Indicators

Assessment of streams of the eastern United States using a periphyton index of biotic integrity

https://doi.org/10.1016/S1470-160X(02)00062-6Get rights and content

Abstract

Benthic algae were collected from 272 eastern United States streams and rivers and analyzed for diatom species richness and dominance, the relative abundance of acidobiontic, eutraphentic, and motile diatoms, standing crops of chlorophyll and biomass, and alkaline phosphatase activity. These data were used to calculate a periphyton index of biotic integrity (PIBI), and values of the index were compared among reference, moderately impacted, and disturbed streams. The level of disturbance was based on stream chemistry, riparian disturbance, or a combined classification. Analyses of variance showed that PIBI was significantly higher in reference streams for all classifications. The PIBI and its metrics were correlated with many of the chemistry and habitat variables, and canonical correlation analysis revealed three significant environmental gradients which extracted 84% of the variance in the PIBI and its metrics. We used the mean 75th, 25th, and 5th percentile scores from the reference sites to set thresholds for excellent, good, fair, or poor condition. Applying these criteria to the cumulative distribution of total stream length in the region, we found that 4.3% of the stream length was in excellent condition; 20.8% in good condition; 56.4% in fair condition; and 18.5% in poor condition. The sensitivity of the PIBI and its component metrics to environmental stressors supports the use of this index for monitoring ecological conditions in streams in the eastern United States and as a tool to aid in diagnosing the causes of their impairment.

Introduction

Stream biological integrity reveals itself in the condition, abundance, and diversity of its biota, and biological surveys of stream communities have long been used to assess the impacts of human activities on these systems. Over the past two decades, biological monitoring has risen to the forefront of environmental impact assessments and stream monitoring programs. During this time, the scope of biological monitoring has evolved from the collection of biological data in support of toxicity determinations of waters to the collection of biological information for water quality prediction. Data collected from these surveys are analyzed typically by either multimetric or multivariate techniques, the merits of each having been argued extensively (Norris, 1995, Gerritsen, 1995, Reynoldson et al., 1997). During this same time period the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) mandated that states establish water quality criteria based on biological information and determine the causes of impairment (US EPA, 1990, US EPA, 2000a). To meet this challenge states are collecting biological data from a large number of sites scattered across many different landscapes. The usefulness of these data may depend not just on our ability to determine the extent of impairment of stream conditions, but also on our ability to diagnose the likely causes of the impairment.

In previous studies we demonstrated the use of algal assemblage data for stream monitoring (Hill et al., 2000) and the effect of diatom taxonomic resolution on the assessment of stream conditions (Hill et al., 2001). Our present study has three objectives: (1) to adapt our earlier periphyton index of biotic integrity for use with diatoms only, (2) to compare diatom assemblage attributes and an index of biotic integrity among reference and disturbed stream classes, and (3) to explore the ability of this index of biotic integrity to diagnose the likely causes of impairment in eastern USA streams.

Section snippets

Study area and survey design

Our survey included streams sampled during 1997 and 1998 by the US EPA in the Appalachian Mountain, Piedmont, and Coastal Plains regions of the eastern United States (Fig. 1). We classified streams as either reference, disturbed, or moderate on the basis of chemistry or riparian disturbance. Reference streams met all of the following criteria: acid neutralizing capacity (ANC)>50 meq/l, Cl<100 meq/l, SO42−<400 meq/l, total P<25 mg/l, and total N<700 mg/l; and disturbed streams met any one of these

Chemistry

A 4 l grab-sample and two 60 ml syringes of stream water were collected in flowing water near the middle of the stream at each sampling site (Lazorchak et al., 1999, Lazorchak et al., 2000). The syringes were sealed with a Luer-lock valve to prevent gas exchange. All samples were placed on ice and sent by overnight courier to the analytical laboratory. The syringe samples were analyzed for pH, and dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC), and the cubitainer sample was split into aliquots and preserved

Environmental variables

The PIBI and its metrics were significantly correlated with nutrients, chemicals associated with watershed disturbances (Cl and SO42−), and habitat features (channel substrate size, canopy cover, stream width, channel slope and proximity-weighted sum of human disturbances in the riparian zone) (Table 2). Canonical correlation analysis revealed three significant environmental gradients, the first (W1), associated with stream chemistry, was positively correlated with ANC, total P, total N Cl

Discussion

Section 305(b) of the Clean Water Act (CWA) requires states, territories, tribes, and interstate commissions to assess the conditions of their waters and the extent that these waters meet water quality standards and support designated uses. The most recent report indicated that 45% of total stream length in the United States is impaired (35%) or threatened with impairment (10%) (US EPA, 2000a). States in the Mid-Atlantic region report similar findings: e.g. Delaware 63% in poor condition;

Conclusions

In order for diatom assemblages to be most useful in the monitoring and management of streams in these changing environments, their attributes and indices should respond both to specific and multiple environmental stressors in a predictable manner. The diatom assemblage attributes and periphyton index used in this study were selected because of reported relationships between these attributes and indices and environmental degradation. The PIBI is not influenced significantly by stream size nor

Acknowledgements

This research was funded by the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (US EPA) Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program. Preparation of this manuscript was a joint effort of the US EPA’s National Health and Environmental Effects Laboratories in Duluth, Minnesota and Corvallis, Oregon; its cooperators (Oregon State University, CR824682) and contractors. The authors thank M. Arbogast, L. Fore, R. Hughes, Y. Pan, D. Peck, J. Stevenson and J. Stoddard for their considerable efforts checking

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    Present address: North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Raleigh, NC 27699, USA.

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