EARLY HEARING DETECTION AND INTERVENTION VIRTUAL CONFERENCE
MARCH 2-5, 2021

(Virtually the same conference, without elevators, airplane tickets, or hotel room keys)

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5/20/2019  |   3:00 PM - 3:15 PM   |  WHEN COMMUNITY INDICES FAIL CAN WE FALL BACK ON SINGLE-SPECIES INFERENCES? A DIATOM-BASED EXAMPLE   |  250 CF

WHEN COMMUNITY INDICES FAIL CAN WE FALL BACK ON SINGLE-SPECIES INFERENCES? A DIATOM-BASED EXAMPLE

Failure of community-based indices such as IBIs and transfer functions to adequately track environmental quality mandates alternative methods such as relying on known properties of individual, dominant species. We explore this alternative using Great Lakes diatoms: Are certain diatom species unambiguously indicative of stressors like agriculture, mining and deforestation? We compiled a detailed set of long-term, quantitative stressor data for 60 watersheds surrounding the Laurentian Great Lakes and related these parameters with fossil diatom relative abundances recovered from sediment cores. Stressors included population, mining, deforestation and GIS coverages for agricultural land, with records extending back as far as 1780. A distinct suite of diatom species was associated with agricultural activity which peaked in the mid-20th century. Another subset of taxa are associated with population growth, a trend that may be concurrently related to climate change. Despite the unique physico-chemical characteristics of each lake, Great Lakes basin-wide indicators of stress were detectable. This work clarifies the bioassessment role of several diatom species in the world’s largest freshwater resource.

  • Algae
  • Phytoplankton
  • Water Quality

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Presenters/Authors

Euan Reavie (), Natural Resources Research Institute – U. Minnesota Duluth, ereavie@d.umn.edu;


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Meijun Cai (), Natural Resources Research Institute - U. Minnesota Duluth, mcai@d.umn.edu;


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