Skip to main content
Log in

Using Multiple Taxonomic Groups to Index the Ecological Condition of Lakes

  • Published:
Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Biological indicators of communitiestypically reflect a common environmental signalreflecting the general condition of the ecosystem, as well asindividual signals by indicators differentiallysensitive to particular environmental conditions. Wedescribe here a method of integrating and interpretingsuch indicators from 19 New England lakes for fivetaxonomic groups (diatoms, benthos, zooplankton, fish,and birds). Our approach provides a systematicstandardized way to integrate multiple metrics fromdifferent taxonomic groups by addressing four elementscrucial to analyzing data from multiple indicators: covariate control, re-scaling of data, standardizing the sign of responses, and dimensional reduction. We evaluated the biologicalmetrics against individual environmental stressors andagainst multivariate physicochemical metricscharacterizing general anthropogenic stress among thelakes. The method detected a response to variationin the gross environmental condition of the lakes thatwas correlated across taxa and metrics. In addition,a differential response to near shore conditions wasdemonstrated for fish. The success of the approach inthis study lends support to its general application toecological monitoring involving complex data sets.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Allen, A. P., Whittier, T. R., Kaufmann, P. R., Larsen, D. P., O'Connor, R. J., Hughes, R. M., Stemberger, R. S., Dixit, S. S., Brinkhurst, R. O., Herlihy, A. T. and Paulsen, S. G.: ‘Concordance of taxonomic richness patterns across multiple assemblages in lakes of the northeastern U.S.A.’, Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, (in press).

  • Baker, J. R., Peck, D. V. and Sutton, D. W. (eds.): 1997, Field operations manual for lakes, Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program-Surface Waters’, EPA/620/R-97/001, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Corvallis, OR, 276 pp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cairns, J., McCormick, P. V. and Niederlehner, B. R.: 1993, ‘A proposed framework for developing indictors of ecosystem health’, Hydrobiologia 263, 1.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cramp, S. and Conder, P. J.: 1961, The Deaths of Birds and Mammals Connected With Toxic Chemicals, Report No. 1 of the BTO-RSPB Toxic Chemicals Committee.

  • Croonquist, M. J. and Brooks, R. P.: 1991, ‘Use of avian and mammalian guilds as indicators of cumulative impacts in riparian-wetland areas’, Environmental Management 15, 701.

    Google Scholar 

  • Death, R. G.: 1996, ‘The effect of habitat stability on benthic invertebrate communities: The utility of species abundance distributions’, Hydrobiologia 317, 97.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dionne, M. and Karr, J. R.: 1992, ‘Ecological Monitoring of Fish Assemblages in Tennessee River Reservoirs’, in D. H. McKenzie, D. E. Hyatt and V. J. McDonald (eds.), Ecological Indicators, Elsevier, New York, New York, pp. 259–281.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dixit, S. S., Smol, J. P., Charles, D. F., Hughes, R. M., Paulsen, S. G. and Collins, G. B.: 1999, ‘Assessing water quality changes in the lakes of the northeastern United States using sediment diatoms’, Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 56, 131.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dixit, S. S., Smol, J. P., Kingston, J. C. and Charles, D. F.: 1992, ‘Diatoms: powerful indicators of environmental change’, Environmental Science and Technology 26, 23.

    Google Scholar 

  • Edwards, C. J., Ryder, R. A. and Marshall, T. R.: 1990, ‘Using lake trout as a surrogate of ecosystem health for oligotrophic waters of the Great Lakes', Journal of Great Lakes Research 16, 592.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ellis, M. M.: 1937, ‘Detection and measurement of stream pollution’, Bulletin of the Bureau of Fisheries 48, 365.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fausch, K. D., Lyons, J., Karr, J. R. and Angermeier, A. W.: 1990, ‘Fish Communities as Indicators of Environmental Degradation’, in S. M. Adams (ed.), Biological Indicators of Stress in Fish, American Fisheries Society Symposium, 8. Bethesda, Maryland, pp. 123–144.

  • Fore, L. S., Karr, J. R. and Wisseman, R. W.: 1996, ‘Assessing invertebrate responses to human activities: evaluating alternative approaches’, Journal of the North American Benthological Society 15, 212.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hickey, J. J.: 1969, Peregrine Falcon Populations: Their Biology and Decline, University of Wisconsin Press, Wisconsin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hughes, R. M., Kaufmann, P. R., Herlihy, A. T., Kincaid, T. M., Reynolds, L. and Larsen, D. P.: 1998, ‘A process for developing and evaluating indices of fish assemblage integrity’, Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 55, 1618.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hughes, R. M. and Noss, R. F.: 1992, ‘Biological diversity and biological integrity: Current concerns for lakes and streams’, Fisheries 17, 11.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hughes, R. M. and Oberdorff, T.: 1998, ‘Applications of IBI Concepts and Metrics to Waters Outside the United States and Canada’, in Simon, T. P. (ed.), Assessment Approaches for Estimating Biological Integrity using Fish Communities, Lewis Press, Boca Raton, FL.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hunsaker, C. T. and Carpenter, D. E. (eds.): 1990, Ecological Indicators for the Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program, EPA 600/3–90/060, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, 424 pp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hynes, H. B. N.: 1960, The Biology of Polluted Waters’, Liverpool University Press, Liverpool, U.K.

    Google Scholar 

  • Karr, J. R.: 1981, ‘Assessment of biotic integrity using fish communities’, Fisheries 6, 21.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Karr, J. R.: 1993, ‘Defining and assessing ecological integrity: Beyond water quality’, Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry 12, 1521.

    Google Scholar 

  • Karr, J. R., Fausch, K. D., Angermeier, P. L., Yant, P. R. and Schlosser, I. J.: 1986, Assessment of biological integrity in running water: A method and its rationale, Illinois Natural History Survey Special Publication No. 5, Champaign, IL, 28 pp.

  • Kaufmann, P. R. and Robison, E. G.: 1998, ‘Physical Habitat Characterization’, in Lazorchak, J. M., Klemm, D. J. and Peck, D. V. (eds.), Field Operations and Methods Manual for Measuring the Ecological Condition of Wadeable Streams, EPA/620/R-94/004, U. S. Environmental Protection Agency, Cincinnati, OH, pp. 77–118.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kerans, B. L. and Karr, J. R.: 1994, ‘A benthic index of biotic integrity (B-IBI) for rivers of the Tennessee Valley’, Ecological Applications 4, 768.

    Google Scholar 

  • Landres, P. B., Verner, J. and Thomas, J. W.: 1988, ‘Ecological uses of vertebrate indicator species: A critique’, Conservation Biology 2, 316.

    Google Scholar 

  • Larsen, D. P. and Christie, S. J. (eds.): 1993, EMAP-Surface Waters Pilot Report, EPA/620.R-93/003, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Corvallis, OR, 201 pp.

    Google Scholar 

  • MacArthur, R. and Wilson, E. O.: 1967, The Theory of Island Biogeography, Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey.

    Google Scholar 

  • Miller, D. L., Leonard, P. M., Hughes, R. M., Karr, J. R., Moyle, P. B., Schrader, L. H., Thompson, B. A., Daniels, R. A., Fausch, K. D., Fitzhugh, G. A., Gammon, J. R., Halliwell, D. B., Angermeier, P. L. and Orth, D. J.: 1988, ‘Regional applications of an index of biotic integrity for use in water resource management’, Fisheries 13, 12.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Minns, C. K., Cairns, V. W., Randall, R. G. and Moore, J. E.: 1994, ‘An Index of Biotic Integrity (IBI) for fish assemblages in the littoral zone of Great Lakes areas of concern’, Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 51, 1804.

    Google Scholar 

  • Moors, A. K.: 1993, Towards an Avian Index of Biotic Integrity for Lakes, Master's Thesis, University of Maine, Orono.

    Google Scholar 

  • Moss, B., Johns, P. and Phillips, G.: 1996, ‘The monitoring of ecological quality and the classification of standing waters in temperate regions: a review and proposal based on a worked scheme for British waters’, Biological Reviews 71, 301.

    Google Scholar 

  • O'Connor, R. J., Jones, M. T., White, D., Hunsaker, C., Loveland, T., Jones, B. and Preston, E.: 1996, ‘Spatial partitioning of the environmental correlates of avian biodiversity in the lower United States’, Biodiversity Letters, 3, 97.

    Google Scholar 

  • O'Connor, R. J. and Shrubb, M.: 1986, Farming and Birds, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England.

    Google Scholar 

  • Plafkin, J. L., Barbour, M. T., Porter, K. D., Gross, S. K. and Hughes, R. M.: 1989, Rapid Bioassessment Protocols for Use in Streams and Rivers: Benthic Macroinvertebrates and Fish’, EPA/44/4–89/001. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Water, Washington, DC, 162 pp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Platts, W. S., Megahan, W. F. and Minshall, G. W.: 1983, Methods for Evaluating Stream, Riparian, and Biotic Condition, General Technical Report INT-138, U.S. Forest Service, Ogden, UT, 70 pp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rexstad, E., Miller, D. D., Flather, C. H., Anderson, E. M., Hupp, J. W. and Anderson, D. R.: 1988, ‘Questionable multivariate statistical inference in wildlife habitat and community studies’, Journal of Wildlife Management 52, 794.

    Google Scholar 

  • Simon, T. P. and Lyons, J.: 1995, ‘Application of the Index of Biotic Integrity to Evaluate Water Resource Integrity in Freshwater Ecosystems’, in W. S. Davis and T. P. Simon (eds.), Biological Assessment and Criteria: Tools for Water Resource Planning and Decision Making, Lewis, Boca Raton, Florida, pp. 245–262.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, S. H.: 1968, ‘Species succession and fishery exploitation in the Great Lakes’, Journal of the Fisheries Research Board of Canada 25, 667.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stemberger, R. S. and Lazorchak, J. M.: 1994, ‘Zooplankton assemblage responses to disturbance gradients’, Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 51, 2435.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stemberger, R. S. and Miller, E. K.: 1998, ‘A zooplankton N:P ratio indicator for lakes’, Environmental Monitoring and Assessment 51, 29.

    Google Scholar 

  • Suter, G. W.: 1993, ‘A critique of ecosystem health concepts and indexes’, Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry 12, 1533.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thome, J. P., Louvet, M. and Hugla, J. L.: 1993, ‘Apports et distribution des PCBs dans la Baie sud de la Mer du Nord: essai de synthese’, Bull. Soc. R. Sci. Liege 63, 167.

    Google Scholar 

  • Warren, C. E.: 1971, Biology and Water Pollution Control, Saunders, Philadelphia, PA, 434 pp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Whittier, T. R., Halliwell, D. B. and Paulsen, S. G.: 1997, ‘Cyprinid distributions in northeast USA lakes: evidence of regional-scale minnow biodiversity losses’, Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 54, 1593.

    Google Scholar 

  • Whittier, T. R. and Hughes, R. M.: 1998, ‘Evaluation of fish species tolerances to environmental stressors in Northeast USA lakes’, North American Journal of Fisheries Management 18, 236.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wickham, J. D., Wu, J. and Bradford, D. F.: 1997, ‘A conceptual framework for selecting and analyzing stressor data to study species richness at larger spatial scales’, Environmental Management 21, 247.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Yoder, C. O. and Rankin, E. T.: 1998, ‘The role of biological indicators in a state water quality management process’, Environmental Monitoring and Assessment 51, 61.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zar, J. H. 1984, Biostatistical Analysis, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Raymond J. O'Connor.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

O'Connor, R.J., Walls, T.E. & Hughes, R.M. Using Multiple Taxonomic Groups to Index the Ecological Condition of Lakes. Environ Monit Assess 61, 207–229 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1006119205583

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1006119205583

Navigation