A national ozone biomonitoring program--results from field surveys of ozone sensitive plants in northeastern forests (1994-2000)

Ozone biomonitoring is a detection and monitoring techniquethat involves documenting ozone-induced visible injury toknown ozone-sensitive species under conditions of ambientexposure. The USDA Forest Service administers a long-term,nationwide ozone biomonitoring program to address public andscientific concerns about ozone impacts on forest health. Asystematic grid is used as the basis for biomonitoring sitelocations. At each site, trained field crews evaluate amaximum of thirty plants of up to six species and record the amount and severity of leaf-injury on individualplants. Injury from ozone was found more often on biomonitoring sites in the eastern Unites States than in theinterior or west-coast areas. Further results from thenortheast reveal that in any year, there is a higherpercentage of ozone-injured plants with more severe symptomsin areas with relatively high ozone concentrations than inareas with relatively low ozone. In very dry years (e.g.,1999) the percentage of injured plants and injury severityestimates are both sharply reduced even though ambient ozoneexposures are high. These findings demonstrate thatbiomonitoring data provide meaningful evidence of when highozone concentrations during the growing season have biologicalsignificance. Any assessment of ozone stress in the forestenvironment must include both biomonitoring (i.e., plantresponse) and air quality data to be complete.     

Quantitative analysis of toxic and essential elements in human hair. Clinical validity of results

Over the last three decades, there has been an increasing awareness of environmental and occupational exposures to toxic or potentially toxic trace elements. The evolution of biological monitoring includes knowledge of kinetics of toxic and/or essential elements and adverse health effects related to their exposure. The debate whether a hair is a valid sample for biomonitoring or not is still attracting the attention of analysts, health care professionals, and environmentalists. Although researchers have found many correlations of essential elements to diseases, metabolic disorders, environmental exposures, and nutritional status, opponents of the concept of hair analysis object that hair samples are unreliable due to the influence of external factors. This review discusses validity of hair as a sample for biomonitoring of essentiall and toxic elements, with emphasis on pre-analytical, analytical, and post-analytical factors influencing results.     

A new attachment device for deployment of monitoring equipment in estuaries and other high-energy environments

Biomonitoring is an important component of estuarine research and monitoring programs because living organisms integrate biological, chemical, and physical conditions over time. The deployment of biomonitoring devices in ecosystems that are subject to changes in water level and flow can be very challenging. This paper describes a new device, which facilitates such applications such as the deployment of periphytometers. The device is designed to encircle posts, poles, or pilings, such as channel markers common in many waterways. This device has been evaluated and approved for use by the US Coast Guard, needed for attachment to navigational aids. It allows attachment of monitoring devices requiring in situ deployment at fixed water depths in systems with dynamic water levels or velocities while minimizing the potential for shading, damage, theft, or poor long-term performance.     

An argument for ecosystem level monitoring

One objective of environmental monitoring programs is documentation of qualitative and quantitative environmental changes in response to external stresses, including chemical contamination. Chemical contaminant, biological, and ecological measurements have been used as environmental monitors. Contaminant monitoring allows estimation of exposures; biological and ecological monitoring allow estimation of uptake and effects.Measurements of ecosystem homeostasis such as nutrient cycling processes have been shown to be good ecosystem level monitors. The rate of dissolved nutrient loss from ecosystems has been conclusively shown to increase as a function of chemical contamination until a new equilibrium is reached, the pollutant input has become negligible, or until nutrient pools have been depleted. Consequently, nutrient pools in environmental strata and in biota are altered and eventually depleted by chemical stress.The use of nutrient cycling to determine sensitive responses to and long-term changes for chemical contamination is an essential monitoring strategy for environmental management and compliance purposes. Measurements of export (rapid response) and pools (long-term consequences) are within current technology, are cost-effective, and allow rapid implementation of remedial measures or environmental controls.Paper presented at a Symposium held on 20–21 April 1982, in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.     

An Evaluation of Bivalves as Biomonitors of Heavy Metals Pollution in Marine Waters

Heavy metals (namely Cr, Cu, Zn, As, Hg, Pb, Ni, and Ag) that are present at concentrations common in ambient marine waters can cause adverse effects in shellfish. Such effects can significantly impact the trophic structure of a biological community. Heavy metals uptake is dependent on both geochemical and biological factors. In bivalves, the extent of accumulation is a function of several biotic and abiotic variables. Based on several criteria, (including: an ability to accumulate metals without suffering mortality, habitation within, and continuous exposure to, the contaminated matrix, hardiness, and ease of sampling) bivalve molluscs have proven to be useful biomonitors for a host of inorganic contaminants. It is essential that the biomonitoring plan is not only site specific, but that it considers the use of indigenous species whenever possible. This paper will provide a general review of studies that have employed bivalved shellfish as sentinel bioindicators in marine environments impacted by heavy metals, and give suggestions for conducting biomonitoring assays.     

河流生态系统指示生物与生物监测:概念、方法及发展趋势

综述了河流生物监测的概念、常用指示生物与监测指标、国外相对完善的技术体系及发展趋势。大型底栖动物、着生藻类、鱼类是河流生物监测中最常使用的指示生物,可以单独使用,也可结合使用,详述了这些类群在河流生态系统中的重要地位及用于生物监测的优点。常用的监测指标包括生物多样性指数、生物指数、多参数指数、多变量指数及功能性指数。许多国家和地区(如英国、美国、欧盟等)都已经将生物监测纳入水环境管理系统,并开发出自己的技术体系。未来的河流生物监测中,功能性指数的应用会越来越多,分子技术的介入也会为提高分类辨识度和检测遗传多样性提供更为有效的途径。最后,思考并总结了国内河流生物监测的现状及趋势。     

Towards generalised reference condition models for environmental assessment: a case study on rivers in Atlantic Canada

Evaluation of the ecological status of river sites in Canada is supported by building models using the reference condition approach. However, geography, data scarcity and inter-operability constraints have frustrated attempts to monitor national-scale status and trends. This issue is particularly true in Atlantic Canada, where no ecological assessment system is currently available. Here, we present a reference condition model based on the River Invertebrate Prediction and Classification System approach with regional-scale applicability. To achieve this, we used biological monitoring data collected from wadeable streams across Atlantic Canada together with freely available, nationally consistent geographic information system (GIS) environmental data layers. For the first time, we demonstrated that it is possible to use data generated from different studies, even when collected using different sampling methods, to generate a robust predictive model. This model was successfully generated and tested using GIS-based rather than local habitat variables and showed improved performance when compared to a null model. In addition, ecological quality ratio data derived from the model responded to observed stressors in a test dataset. Implications for future large-scale implementation of river biomonitoring using a standardised approach with global application are presented.     

Biomonitoring acidic drainage impact in a complex setting using periphyton

Acid mine drainage (AMD) often exerts various environmental pressures on nearby water courses: chemical stress from low pH and dissolved metals; physical stress from metal oxide deposits. Affected streams can thus display a spatially variable combination of stress agents that may complicate its biomonitoring using native communities such as periphyton. Here, we have measured water and periphyton variables in four streams that surround an abandoned copper mine to determine which periphyton attributes consistently detected AMD impact in a complex environmental setting. Seventeen years after the end of commercial exploitation, the abandoned mine still decreases water quality in nearby streams: moderate acidification, very high metal load (Al, Ni, Cu, Zn), and a conspicuous presence of metal oxide deposits with diverse composition. Even under the resultant complex pattern of polluted conditions, periphyton was a reliable bioindicator of AMD. Epilithic diatom taxa tolerant of acidic conditions increased in AMD sites and, at severely impacted locations, species richness decreased. Also, algal biomass may have been negatively affected in some stream reaches affected by metal oxide deposits. Other periphyton attributes (total biomass, diatom diversity) seemed mostly unrelated to AMD. Diatom assemblage composition was the most sensitive and consistent bioindicator of mine drainage; besides, it rendered a biological assessment of AMD impact that largely coincided with the physicochemical evaluation. Still, including other taxonomic (proportion of acid-tolerant diatom species, diatom richness) and non-taxonomic (algal biomass) attributes in the biomonitoring procedure rendered a more comprehensive assessment of the negative consequences generated by AMD.     

中国淡水大型底栖无脊椎动物条形码数据库构建

大型底栖无脊椎动物是得到广泛应用的水质生物监测和评价指示生物,但在实际应用过程中,受类群多样性高、形态鉴定专业性强、鉴定资料不全等影响,难以将其精确鉴定到种.新兴的DNA条形码技术能够快速、精确地鉴定物种,在生物多样性调查和监测等领域被寄予厚望.该方法的有效性与准确性依赖于完整、全面的参考数据库,然而现有公共数据库无法...     

Evaluating Ecological Indicators: Lakes In The Northeastern United States

We use data from a survey of several hundred lakes in the northeastern United States by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to illustrate an approach to identifying promising indicators of lake condition. We construct a hypothetical gold standard of water quality from the first principal component of 16 chemical variables measured in the lakes, and examine its associations with 71 candidate indicators based on measurements of human activity, birds, fish and zooplankton in the lakes or their watersheds. Nonparametric summaries of these associations – based on rank correlations and receiver-operating-characteristic curves – suggest that variables summarizing the extent of human disturbance are generally the strongest indicators. To the extent that our water-quality variable is a useful proxy for ecological condition, our results suggest that easily-obtained measures of human activity are at least as predictive as many of the harder-to-measure biological indicators that have been proposed.     

Nitrogen multitemporal monitoring through mosses in urban areas affected by mud volcanoes around Mt. Etna, Italy

Nitrogen emissions were assessed by using mosses as bioindicators in a densely inhabited area affected by mud volcanoes. Such volcanoes, locally called Salinelle, are phenomena that occur around Mt. Etna (Sicily, Italy), and are interpreted as the surface outflow of a hydrothermal system located below Mt. Etna, which releases sedimentary fluids (hydrocarbons and Na-Cl brines) along with magmatic gases (mainly CO₂ and He). To date, N emissions from such mud volcanoes have been only quantitatively assessed, and no biomonitoring campaigns are reported about the cumulative effects of these emissions. This study analyzed N concentrations in moss, water and soil samples, collected in a 4-year monitoring campaign. The bryophyte Bryum argenteum, a species widely adopted in surveys of atmospheric pollution, was used as a biological indicator. N concentrations in biomonitors showed relatively low values in the study sites. However, the results of this study suggest that N emissions from Salinelle may have an impact on surrounding ecosystems because N values in moss and water showed a significant correlation. N oxides, in particular, contribute to acidification of ecosystems, thus multitemporal biomonitoring is recommended, especially in those areas where N emitting sources are anthropogenic and natural.     

Higher plants as indicators and accumulators of gaseous air pollution

Some higher plant species or varieties are very sensitive to certain gaseous air pollutants, and the resulting effects show sometimes more or less specific, well-visible and measurable symptoms.On this basis several species and varieties of natural and cultivated plants have been selected to serve as biological indicators for the possible presence of certain air polluting substances. But these indicator plants may also be used for the quantitative determination of the effect intensities of the air pollutants involved.Besides, some plant species or varieties may accumulate certain components of air pollution, without changing these substances, in such a way that after accumulation in the plants these substances may be analyzed physicochemically (qualitatively and quantitatively).Definitions are proposed and examples are given of both indicator and accumulator plants. Also information is displayed on the methods for the use of plants as indicators and accumulators of air pollutants (standardized system of plant cultivation and exposure). Some applications of biomonitoring the effects of air pollution with plants are discussed and illustrated with data from The Netherlands.Paper presented at a Symposium held on 14 and 15 October 1982, in Utrecht, The Netherlands.     

生物监测在跨界河流中的应用进展

综合分析了生物监测在跨界河流流经国家间的协调管理、生物类群的选择以及监测技术的选择方面所面临的问题;选择欧洲多瑙河、亚洲湄公河以及非洲尼日尔河等跨界河流作为典型案例,对比分析使用不同生物类群(例如底栖动物、浮游藻类以及鱼类)进行跨界河流生物监测的技术方法,阐述了跨界生物监测项目中的资金来源、管理办法和运行机制等;并对未来的跨界河流生物监测提出建议,以期为中国的跨界河流生物监测提供实践依据。     

Principal response curves technique for the analysis of multivariate biomonitoring time series

Although chemical and biological monitoring is often used to evaluate the quality of surface waters for regulatory purposes and/or to evaluate environmental status and trends, the resulting biological and chemical data sets are large and difficult to evaluate. Multivariate techniques have long been used to analyse complex data sets. This paper discusses the methods currently in use and introduces the principal response curves method, which overcomes the problem of cluttered graphical results representation that is a great drawback of most conventional methods. To illustrate this, two example data sets are analysed using two ordination techniques, principal component analysis and principal response curves. Whereas PCA results in a difficult-to-interpret diagram, principal response curves related methods are able to show changes in community composition in a diagram that is easy to read. The principal response curves method is used to show trends over time with an internal reference (overall mean or reference year) or external reference (e.g. preferred water quality or reference site). Advantages and disadvantages of both methods are discussed and illustrated.     

中国流域水环境生物监测体系构成和发展

分析了国外水环境生物监测体系的构成和特点;总结了中国生物监测的发展历程、基础、存在问题和发展需求;提出了体系发展的总体发展目标,即以流域为单元,以各级支流为监测区段,发展以实现流域水环境生态完整性评价为目的的综合监测体系;同时,着重介绍了重点发展内容:建立以市级站为核心的监测网络;建立包含4个板块的核心业务监测能力;开展生物监测业务标准化建设;进一步完善水环境质量评价报告。对全国监测系统生物监测体系的构成和发展提出建议:在总体发展目标指导下,完成构建水环境生物监测技术体系、构建全国水环境生物监测网络体系、建立数据管理与评价平台及建立运行保障体系4个分目标,实现中国环境管理以"污染防治"为重点到以"生态健康"为目的的转折。     

浅谈环境监测化学测量结果的计量溯源性

确保测量结果的计量溯源性是保障数据有效性的基本要求。为此,国家明确提出要建立健全国家生态环境监测量值溯源体系。化学测量是环境监测工作中最常用的一种测量方式。由于基体、浓度等的影响往往比较复杂,如何确保环境监测化学测量结果的计量溯源性成为环境监测领域的重要研究内容。通过总结建立环境监测化学测量结果计量溯源性的途径,对环境监测分析方法标准、国家环境标准样品、环境检测能力验证等在保证环境监测化学测量结果计量溯源性中的作用进行了分析,以期为环境监测化学测量结果计量溯源性的建立提供参考。     

Potential Effects of Metals in Reacidified Limed Water Bodies in Norway and Sweden

The goal of this work was to assess risk of chemical andbiological effects of metals in reacidified, limed water bodiesin Norway and Sweden. The risk assessment is based on aliterature review and evaluations of water chemical data fromthe 1995 Nordic Lake Survey. Compared to the pre-liming period,it us unlikely that enhanced remobilization of inorganicaluminium (Al) or other toxic metals (metal bomb hypothesis)from the catchment, the lake sediment and/or the streambed willoccur when limed waters reacidify. Rather, the concentrationsin surface waters are expected to be lower than before limingstarted, because of reduced atmospheric inputs of both strongacids and metals as Cd, Hg, Pb, and Zn during the last 10–20 yr. The concentrations in lakes relative to the biologicaleffect levels, as well as the chemical properties of thedifferent metals suggest that the potential biological risksassociated to reacidification of limed lakes decrease in theorder Al > Cd > Pb. The risks associated with Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni and Zn are very low and do not have to be consideredexcept in waters with known concentrations larger than the lowest biological risk level. Such waters are very rare (<2%). Aluminium is the metal that should be used to set the limit for judging the risk of biological damage due to reacidification of limed surface waters.     

中国底栖动物水质生物监测指数和水质等级构建

水质生物监测是水生态环境质量管理的重要内容,构建实用性强的生物指数有助于推动中国的水质生物监测工作。根据江苏、浙江、辽宁、江西和湖南等省份的溪流与河流湖泊共计839个底栖动物数据,将中国已有的底栖动物科级分类单元水质敏感性分值打分表扩充和修订至159个科。采用统计法分别构建了符合中国可涉水水体(溪流等)和不可涉水水体(河流、湖泊等)底栖动物分值指数(Chinese Macroinvertebrate Score Index,CMSI)和底栖动物平均分值指数(Average Chinese Macroinvertebrate Score Index,ACMSI)及水质评价等级体系。CMSI和ACMSI与总氮、总磷、高锰酸盐指数和溶解氧之间Pearson相关性显著,表明研究构建的CMSI和ACMSI是可以反映水质变化的。建议通过实践进一步验证CMSI和ACMSI的可靠性和实用性。     

Study on Fish and Amphibian Embryo-Larval Toxicity Test

In China, it is necessary to establish short-term biomonitoring methods for evaluating the chronic toxicity of industrial wastewater. In this paper, the aquatic toxicity of four important pollutants in petrochemical wastewater, including acrylonitrile, acetonitrile, sulphocyanic sodium and dimethyl formamide, was studied with fish and amphibian embryo-larval toxicity tests using Cyprinus carpio and Rana nigromaculata as test organisms. The objective is to present some useful data for establishing short-term chronic toxicity test methods used to perform biomonitoring in China. The results indicate that the chronic toxicity of acrylonitrile to fish and amphibians was the highest of the four test pollutants, followed by NaSCN, acetonitrile and DMF. The sensitivity of the carp embryo- larval test to chemicals was greater than that of the R. nigromaculata embryo-larval test.