2023 Early Hearing Detection & Intervention Conference

March 5-7, 2023 • Cincinnati, OH

5/23/2019 | 12:15 PM - 12:30 PM | SYNTHESIS OF A NATIONAL MULTI-METRIC DIATOM INDEX | 150 DEF

SYNTHESIS OF A NATIONAL MULTI-METRIC DIATOM INDEX

Multimetric indices (MMIs) are widely used for biological assessment of fish and aquatic invertebrates because they can be strong measures of anthropogenic stress. MMIs are also used in bioassessment of diatoms, particularly in the European Union. In the U.S. however, MMIs for diatoms have had limited use in federal surveys by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Geological Survey. We know taxonomic inconsistency across analysts is problematic for diatom species identification. MMIs, however, have been assumed to be robust to inconsistent taxonomic identifications. We are building a national MMI and want to determine if metrics have differing sensitivities to analyst bias. We applied a diatom traits table of 70 metrics to approximately 900 reference sites and compared raw species data to a subset corrected for analyst bias. We found diatom traits fall into three groups: 1) immune, 2) slightly influenced, or 3) greatly influenced by an “analyst effect”. With this information we can construct an MMI based on traits minimally influenced by analyst bias. We will apply the selected traits to streams across a gradient of urban and agricultural impact to determine traits for inclusion in a national MMI.

Bioindicators
Monitoring
Algae

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Presenters/Authors

Meredith Tyree (), Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, University of Colorado Boulder, meredithtyree@gmail.com;