Recent literature reviews of bioassessment methods raise questions about use of least-impacted reference sites to characterize natural conditions that no longer exist within contemporary landscapes. We explore an alternate approach for bioassessment that uses species site occupancy data from museum archives as input for species distribution models (SDMs) stacked to predict species assemblages o...

Taxonomic identification accounts for a substantial portion of cost associated with bioassessment programs across the United States. New analytical approaches, such as DNA barcoding have been promoted as a way to reduce monitoring costs and improve efficiency, yet this assumption has not been thoroughly evaluated. We address this question by comparing costs for traditional morphology-based bioa...

Species distribution models are widely used for stream bioassessment, estimating changes in habitat suitability and identifying conservation priorities. We tested the accuracy of three modelling strategies (single species ensemble, multi-species response and community classification models) to predict fish assemblages at reference stream segments in coastal subtropical Australia. We aimed to ev...

Bioassessment evaluates ecosystem health by using the responses of a community of organisms that integrate all aspects of the ecosystem. A variety of bioassessment methods have been applied to aquatic ecosystems; however, terrestrial methods are less advanced. The objective of this study was to examine baseline differences in ant communities at different seral stages from clear cut to mature pi...

Executive Summary Bioassessment is the science of using aquatic organisms as indicators of ecological condition in streams in rivers. Many types of organisms can be used as indicators, for example fish or algae, but bioassessment is most frequently based on benthic macroinvertebrates (BMIs), which are small but visible bottom-dwelling organisms such as insects. BMI data sets typically consist o...

Stream bioassessment is important for understanding algal-nutrient relationships and the development of scientifically defensible numeric nutrient criteria. However, multiple methods of periphyton data collection are currently used, and little is known about the comparability of resulting datasets. Literature also suggests other factors besides nutrients (i.e. variable grazing, light, and flow)...

Freshwater habitats are of high conservation value and provide a wide range of ecosystem services. Effective management requires regular monitoring. However, conventional methods based on direct observation or specimen collection are so invasive, expensive and labour-intensive that frequent monitoring is uncommon. Here, we test whether the evaluation of environmental DNA (eDNA) from water based...

Water quality indices (WQIs), which translate numerical values of several water quality characteristics of a sample into a single value, play a very important role in the monitoring, comparison and control of water quality. The WQIs of modern and post-modern times have been almost exclusively based on physical and chemical characteristics, and have seldom included 'biological' characteristics o...

The hypothesis is tested that toxicity of acid mine drainage can be detected by a selection of existing macroinvertebrate community and bioindicator metrices supplemented by toxicity tests with the local mosquitofish Gambusia holbrooki Girard and the shrimp Atyaephyra desmaresti Millet. The behavioural responses of A. desmaresti to acid mine drainage were recorded in the Multispecies Freshwater...