Index Of Biological Integrity
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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 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 ...
problems, although there have been some efforts to apply the idea to terrestrial environments. An IBI associates
anthropogenic Anthropogenic ("human" + "generating") is an adjective that may refer to: * Anthropogeny, the study of the origins of humanity Anthropogenic may also refer to things that have been generated by humans, as follows: * Human impact on the enviro ...
influences on a water body with biological activity in the water body, and is formulated using data developed from
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, envi ...
s. 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 integrity of the ecosystem would remain intact. Similar to the concept of
ecosystem health Ecosystem health is a metaphor used to describe the condition of an ecosystem.Rapport, David (1998). "Defining ecosystem health." Pages 18-33 in Rapport, D.J. (ed.) (1998). ''Ecosystem Health.'' Blackwell Scientific. Ecosystem condition can vary a ...
, the integrity of the ecosystem relies heavily on the processes that occur within it because those determine which organisms can inhabit an area and the complexities of their interactions. Deciding which of the many possible states or conditions of an ecosystem is appropriate or desirable is a political or policy decision.


Overview

To quantitatively assess changes in the composition of biologic communities, IBIs are developed to accurately reflect the
ecological complexity ''Ecological Complexity'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed scientific journal covering the field of biocomplexity in the environment and theoretical ecology with special attention to papers that integrate natural and social processes at various spatio ...
from statistical analysis. There is no one universal IBI, and developing metrics that consistently give accurate assessment of the monitored population requires rigorous testing to confirm its validity for a given subject. Often IBIs are region-specific and require experienced professionals to provide sufficient quality data to correctly assess a score. Because communities naturally vary as do samples collected from a larger population, identifying robust
statistics Statistics (from German language, German: ', "description of a State (polity), state, a country") is the discipline that concerns the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of data. In applying statistics to a s ...
with acceptable variance is an area of active and important research. This can be a powerful tool to identify systemic impacts on the
health Health has a variety of definitions, which have been used for different purposes over time. In general, it refers to physical and emotional well-being, especially that associated with normal functioning of the human body, absent of disease, p ...
of biological systems. IBIs are increasingly involved in the identification of impairment, and confirmation of recovery of impaired waters, in the total maximum daily load process required by the
Clean Water Act The Clean Water Act (CWA) is the primary federal law in the United States governing water pollution. Its objective is to restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the nation's waters; recognizing the primary respo ...
in the USA. Unlike chemical testing of water samples, which gives brief snap-shots of chemical concentrations, an IBI captures an integrated net impact on a biological community structure. While the complete absence, particularly sudden disappearance of, suites of
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 sma ...
can constitute powerful evidence of a specific pollutant or stress factor, IBIs generally do not resolve a specific cause of impairment. The IBI concept was formulated by James Karr in 1981. To date IBIs have been developed for
fish A fish (: fish or fishes) is an aquatic animal, aquatic, Anamniotes, anamniotic, gill-bearing vertebrate animal with swimming fish fin, fins and craniate, a hard skull, but lacking limb (anatomy), limbs with digit (anatomy), digits. Fish can ...
,
algae Algae ( , ; : alga ) is an informal term for any organisms of a large and diverse group of photosynthesis, photosynthetic organisms that are not plants, and includes species from multiple distinct clades. Such organisms range from unicellular ...
,
macroinvertebrate Invertebrates are animals that neither develop nor retain a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''spine'' or ''backbone''), which evolved from the notochord. It is a paraphyletic grouping including all animals excluding the chordate subphylum V ...
s, pupal
exuvia In biology, exuviae are the remains of an exoskeleton and related structures that are left after ecdysozoans (including insects, crustaceans and arachnids) have molted. The exuviae of an animal can be important to biologists as they can often b ...
(shed skins of
chironomidae Chironomidae , commonly known as non-biting midges or chironomids , are a family of Nematoceran flies with a global distribution. They are closely related to the families Ceratopogonidae, Simuliidae, and Thaumaleidae. Although many chironomid ...
),
vascular plants Vascular plants (), also called tracheophytes (, ) or collectively tracheophyta (; ), are plants that have lignified tissues (the xylem) for conducting water and minerals throughout the plant. They also have a specialized non-lignified tissue ( ...
, and combinations of these. Comparatively little work has been done to develop IBIs for terrestrial ecosystems.


Biosurvey protocols

Biosurvey protocols have been published for use in different waterbody types and ecoregions. One such publication is the ''Rapid Bioassessment Protocols'' manual for streams and rivers, issued by the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent agency of the United States government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970; it began operation on De ...
(EPA). Such protocols provide a structure for developing an IBI, which may include measures such as richness of
taxa In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; : taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular name and ...
(species,
genera Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family as used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In binomial nomenclature, the genus name forms the first part of the binomial s ...
, etc.) and proportion of pollution-tolerant or intolerant taxa.


Development with volunteer and professional staff

It is possible to create IBIs for use by minimally trained monitoring personnel, however the precision obtainable is lower than that conducted by trained professionals. Safeguards to assure robustness in spite of potential misidentifications or
protocol Protocol may refer to: Sociology and politics * Protocol (politics) Protocol originally (in Late Middle English, c. 15th century) meant the minutes or logbook taken at a meeting, upon which an agreement was based. The term now commonly refers to ...
variations require careful testing. Ongoing
quality control Quality control (QC) is a process by which entities review the quality of all factors involved in production. ISO 9000 defines quality control as "a part of quality management focused on fulfilling quality requirements". This approach plac ...
by established experts is needed to maintain
data integrity Data integrity is the maintenance of, and the assurance of, data accuracy and consistency over its entire Information Lifecycle Management, life-cycle. It is a critical aspect to the design, implementation, and usage of any system that stores, proc ...
, and the analysis of IBI results becomes more complex. Use of trained volunteers is being pioneered by government agencies responsible for monitoring large numbers of water bodies with limited resources, such as the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) and local volunteer stream monitoring programs supported by MPCA. EPA has published guidance to assist volunteer programs in formulating IBIs and related findings. While IBIs from such programs are legally admissible in US courts, defending the validity of conclusions based solely on such results is unlikely to be feasible. Agreement among multiple IBIs from data collected by established professionals can be more conclusive. A case in point is the phenomenon that stream IBI scores indicate significant impairment, or partial
ecological collapse An ecosystem, short for ecological systems theory, system, is defined as a collection of interacting Organism, organisms within a biophysical environment. Ecosystems are never static, and are continually subject to both stabilizing and destabiliz ...
where more than 10 to 15 percent of the immediately surrounding
watershed Watershed may refer to: Hydrology * Drainage divide, the line that separates neighbouring drainage basins * Drainage basin, an area of land where surface water converges (North American usage) Music * Watershed Music Festival, an annual country ...
is
impervious In fluid mechanics, materials science and Earth sciences, the permeability of porous media (often, a rock or soil) is a measure of the ability for fluids (gas or liquid) to flow through the media; it is commonly symbolized as ''k''. Fluids can ...
due to
urbanization Urbanization (or urbanisation in British English) is the population shift from Rural area, rural to urban areas, the corresponding decrease in the proportion of people living in rural areas, and the ways in which societies adapt to this change. ...
.Schueler, Thomas R
"The Importance of Imperviousness."
Reprinted i

2000. Center for Watershed Protection. Ellicott City, MD.
Identifying reasons for such impairments, and possible exceptions to these trends, are major research challenges for academics studying cumulative watershed effects, and the use of low-impact development techniques to mitigate the impacts of
stormwater Stormwater, also written storm water, is water that originates from precipitation (storm), including heavy rain and meltwater from hail and snow. Stormwater can soak into the soil ( infiltrate) and become groundwater, be stored on depressed lan ...
runoff pollution.


See also

*
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 sma ...
*
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 de ...
*
Biological monitoring working party Biology is the scientific study of life and living organisms. It is a broad natural science that encompasses a wide range of fields and unifying principles that explain the structure, function, growth, History of life, origin, evolution, and ...
(a measurement procedure) *
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 freshwate ...
*
Ecosystem health Ecosystem health is a metaphor used to describe the condition of an ecosystem.Rapport, David (1998). "Defining ecosystem health." Pages 18-33 in Rapport, D.J. (ed.) (1998). ''Ecosystem Health.'' Blackwell Scientific. Ecosystem condition can vary a ...
*
Normative science In the applied sciences, normative science is a type of information that is developed, presented, or interpreted based on an assumed, usually unstated, preference for a particular outcome, policy or class of policies or outcomes. Regular or tradi ...
*
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 tr ...


References


External links


Benthic Index of Biological Integrity (B-IBI) for the Puget Sound Lowlands
- SalmonWeb / University of Washington * *{{cite web , title=Biological Integrity , author= , url=http://www.epa.gov/bioiweb1/html/biointeg.html , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121022174906/http://www.epa.gov/bioiweb1/html/biointeg.html , archive-date=2012-10-22, website=Biological Indicators of Watershed Health , publisher=U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Aquatic ecology Bioindicators Environmental science Water pollution Water quality indicators
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 de ...