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Biotic Index
A biotic index is a scale for showing the quality of an environment by indicating the types and abundances of organisms present in a representative sample of the environment. It is often used to assess the quality of water in marine and freshwater ecosystems. Numerous biotic indices have been created to account for the indicator species found in each region of study. The concept of the biotic index was developed by Cherie Stephens in an effort to provide a simple measurement of stream pollution and its effects on the biology of the stream. Technique To assign a biotic index value to a specific water site, the tester first collects macro invertebrates from portions of the sample area of the stream, river or lake, and separates them into groups of similar-looking organisms. More extensive testing can be done by looking for certain microscopic organisms. Then an identification key is used to help determine which category or group the organism belongs in and allows a numerical value ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Natural Environment
The natural environment or natural world encompasses all life, biotic and abiotic component, abiotic things occurring nature, naturally, meaning in this case not artificiality, artificial. The term is most often applied to Earth or some parts of Earth. This environment encompasses the interaction of all living species, climate, weather and natural resources that affect human survival and economic activity. The concept of the ''natural environment'' can be distinguished as components: * Complete ecological units that function as natural systems without massive civilized human intervention, including all vegetation, microorganisms, soil, rock (geology), rocks, plateaus, mountains, the atmosphere of Earth, atmosphere and list of natural phenomena, natural phenomena that occur within their boundaries and their nature. * Universal natural resources and phenomenon, physical phenomena that lack clear-cut boundaries, such as air, water and climate, as well as energy, radiation, electric ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Organism
An organism is any life, living thing that functions as an individual. Such a definition raises more problems than it solves, not least because the concept of an individual is also difficult. Many criteria, few of them widely accepted, have been proposed to define what an organism is. Among the most common is that an organism has autonomous reproduction, Cell growth, growth, and metabolism. This would exclude viruses, despite the fact that they evolution, evolve like organisms. Other problematic cases include colonial organisms; a colony of eusocial insects is organised adaptively, and has Germ-Soma Differentiation, germ-soma specialisation, with some insects reproducing, others not, like cells in an animal's body. The body of a siphonophore, a jelly-like marine animal, is composed of organism-like zooids, but the whole structure looks and functions much like an animal such as a jellyfish, the parts collaborating to provide the functions of the colonial organism. The evolutiona ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Water Quality
Water quality refers to the chemical, physical, and biological characteristics of water based on the standards of its usage. It is most frequently used by reference to a set of standards against which compliance, generally achieved through treatment of the water, can be assessed. The most common standards used to monitor and assess water quality convey the health of ecosystems, safety of human contact, extent of water pollution and condition of drinking water. Water quality has a significant impact on water supply and often determines supply options. Impacts on public health Over time, there has been increasing recognition of the importance of drinking water quality and its impact on public health. This has led to increasing protection and management of water quality. Text was copied from this source, which is available under a creativecommons:by/4.0/, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License The understanding of the links between water quality and healt ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bioindicator
A bioindicator is any species (an indicator species) or group of species whose function, population, or status can reveal the qualitative status of the environment. The most common indicator species are animals. For example, copepods and other small water crustaceans that are present in many water bodies can be monitored for changes (biochemical, physiological, or behavioural) that may indicate a problem within their ecosystem. Bioindicators can tell us about the cumulative effects of different pollutants in the ecosystem and about how long a problem may have been present, which physical and chemical testing cannot. A biological monitor or biomonitor is an organism that provides quantitative information on the quality of the environment around it. Therefore, a good biomonitor will indicate the presence of the pollutant and can also be used in an attempt to provide additional information about the amount and intensity of the exposure. A biological indicator is also the name gi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cherie Stephens
Cherie is an English female given name. It comes from the French ''chérie'', meaning ''darling'' (from the past participle of the verb ''chérir'', ''to cherish''). It has also been used as a diminutive of names starting with or containing the sound ''Cher-'' or ''Sher-'' such as Cherilyn, Cheryl, Sharon, or Sherilyn for females. The name was well-used for girls in North America from the mid-1920s through the early 1990s and was at the height of popularity between the mid-1940s and mid-1970s. https://www.behindthename.com/name/sherry/top/united-states Spelling variants of the name such as Cherry, Sharee, Shari, Sheree, Sherie, Sherrey, Sherri, Sherrie, and Sherry were in vogue during the same time period. Notable people with the name or stage name include: * Cherie, one of the stage names of French singer Cyndi Almouzni (born 1984) * Cherie Bambury (born 1976), Australian cricket player * Cherie Bennett (born 1960), American novelist, actress, director, playwright, newspa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Water Pollution
Water pollution (or aquatic pollution) is the contamination of Body of water, water bodies, with a negative impact on their uses. It is usually a result of human activities. Water bodies include lakes, rivers, oceans, aquifers, reservoirs and groundwater. Water pollution results when contaminants mix with these water bodies. Contaminants can come from one of four main sources. These are sewage discharges, industrial activities, agricultural activities, and urban runoff including stormwater. Water pollution may affect either surface water or groundwater pollution, groundwater. This form of pollution can lead to many problems. One is the environmental degradation, degradation of aquatic ecosystems. Another is spreading Waterborne diseases, water-borne diseases when people use polluted water for drinking or irrigation. Water pollution also reduces the ecosystem services such as drinking water provided by the Water resources, water resource. Sources of water pollution are either p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hilsenhoff Biotic Index
The Hilsenhoff Biotic Index (HBI) is a quantitative method of evaluating the abundance of arthropod fauna in stream ecosystems as a measurement of estimating water quality based on the predetermined pollution tolerances of the observed taxa. This biotic index was created by William Hilsenhoff in 1977 to measure the effects of oxygen depletion in Wisconsin streams resulting from organic or nutrient pollution. Calculating the HBI The collection sample should contain 100+ arthropods. A tolerance value of 0 to 10 is assigned to each arthropod species (or genera) based on its known prevalence in stream habitats with varying states of detritus contamination. A highly tolerant species would receive a value of 10, while a species collected only in unaltered streams with high water quality would receive a value of 0. The sum products of the number of individuals in each species (or genera) multiplied by the tolerance of the species is divided by the total number of specimens in the sample t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Biological Integrity
Biological integrity is associated with how "pristine" an environment is and its function relative to the potential or original state of an ecosystem before human alterations were imposed. Biological integrity is built on the assumption that a decline in the values of an ecosystem's functions are primarily caused by human activity or alterations. The more an environment and its original processes are altered, the less biological integrity it holds for the community as a whole. If these processes were to change over time naturally, without human influence, the integrity of the ecosystem would remain intact. The integrity of the ecosystem relies heavily on the processes that occur within it because those determine what organisms can inhabit an area and the complexities of their interactions. Most of the applications of the notion of biological integrity have addressed aquatic environments, but there have been efforts to apply the concept to terrestrial environments. Determining the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Biosurvey
A biosurvey, or a biological survey, is a scientific study of organisms to assess the condition of an ecological resource, such as a water body. Overview Biosurveys are used by government agencies responsible for management of public lands, environmental planning and/or environmental regulation to assess ecological resources, such as rivers, streams, lakes and wetlands. They involve collection and analysis of animal and/or plant samples which serve as bioindicators. The studies may be conducted by professional scientists or volunteer organizations. They are conducted according to published procedures to ensure consistency in data collection and analysis, and to compare findings to established metrics. Biosurveys typically use metrics such as species composition and richness (e.g. number of species, extent of pollution-tolerant species), and ecological factors (number of individuals, proportion of predators, presence of disease). Biosurveys may identify pollution problems that ar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Index Of Biological Integrity
An index of biological integrity (IBI), also called an index of biotic integrity, is a scientific tool typically used to identify and classify water pollution problems, although there have been some efforts to apply the idea to terrestrial environments. An IBI associates anthropogenic influences on a water body with biological activity in the water body, and is formulated using data developed from biosurveys. Biological integrity is associated with how "pristine" an environment is and its function relative to the potential or original state of an ecosystem before human alterations were imposed. Biological integrity is built on the assumption that a decline in the values of an ecosystem's functions are primarily caused by human activity or alterations. The more an environment and its original processes are altered, then by definition, the less biological integrity it holds for the community as a whole. If these processes were to change over time naturally, without human influence, the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Indicator Species
A bioindicator is any species (an indicator species) or group of species whose function, population, or status can reveal the qualitative status of the environment. The most common indicator species are animals. For example, copepods and other small water crustaceans that are present in many water body, water bodies can be monitored for changes (biochemical, physiological, or behavioural) that may indicate a problem within their ecosystem. Bioindicators can tell us about the cumulative effects of different pollution, pollutants in the ecosystem and about how long a problem may have been present, which Water pollution#Measurement, physical and chemical testing cannot. A biological monitor or biomonitor is an organism that provides quantitative property, quantitative information on the quality of Environment (biophysical), the environment around it. Therefore, a good biomonitor will indicate the presence of the pollutant and can also be used in an attempt to provide additional inform ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Macroinvertebrate Community Index
Macroinvertebrate Community Index (MCI) is an Index (statistics), index used in New Zealand to measure the water quality of fresh water streams. The presence or lack of invertebrate, macroinvertebrates such as insects, worms and snails in a river or stream can give a Bioindicator, biological indicator on the health of that waterway. The MCI assigns a number to each species of macroinvertebrate based on the sensitivity of that species to pollution. The index then calculates an average score. A higher score on the MCI generally indicates a more healthy stream. The MCI (Macroinvertebrate Community Index) relies on an allocation of scores to freshwater macroinvertebrates based on their pollution tolerances. Freshwater macroinvertebrates found in pristine conditions would score higher than those found in polluted areas.Stark, J. D. (1993) Performance of the Macroinvertebrate Community Index: Effects of sampling method, sample replication, water depth, current velocity, and substratum on ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
