Description
Book SynopsisTasked by the Clean Water Act to restore and maintain the integrity of their waters, state and local governments must develop systems for assessing the health of the streams within their borders. They quickly find that one size does not fit all when it comes to sampling. Rapid Bioassessment of Stream Health examines the sampling techniques, laboratory methods, and data analysis necessary to create a protocol for analyzing the health of streams, using rapid bioassessment techniques.
The editors explore how to determine reference streams in each ecoregion and subecoregion with specific indices of health. They provide field methods for monitoring and sampling invertebrates and laboratory methods for subsampling. The work focuses on the application of the EPA's Rapid Bioassessment Protocol (RBP) but suggests various techniques that can be used to improve sampling protocols and quality control, where necessary. It also includes general listings of health cl
Table of Contents
Introduction. Reference Conditions: Selection of Regional Reference Sites. Assessing Impact Using the Synoptic Approach. Data Sources and Preprocessing. Field and Laboratory Methods. Data Analysis. An Unbiased Approach to Creating Reference Conditions. Biotic Index Development. The Numerical Ranking System. Fixed-Count Subsampling and Bootstrap Resampling: An Evaluation. Is the Representative Stream Reach Really "Representative"? Analysis through Examination of QA/QC Samples. A Final Assessment of Rapid Bioassessment. Incorporating Rapid Bioassessment into the Regulatory Structure.
