Evaluation of multi-metric bioassessment as an approach for assessing impacts of entrainment and impingement under Section 316(b) of the Clean Water Act |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Institute for Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment, Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, Schleusenstraße 1, Wilhelmshaven 26382, Germany;2. Korea Ocean Satellite Center, Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology, Haeyang-ro 385, Yeongdo-gu, Busan 49111, Republic of Korea;1. State Key Laboratory of Geomechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430071, China;2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China;3. Key Laboratory of Ministry of Education on Safe Mining of Deep Metal Mines, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110819, China;4. POWERCHINA Chengdu Engineering Corporation Limited, Chengdu 610072, China;1. Shanghai Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Particle Pollution and Prevention (LAP3), Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200433, China;2. College of Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Shanghai University, Shanghai, 200444, China;3. Shanghai Institute of Pollution Control and Ecological Security, Shanghai, 200092, P.R. China;4. Shanghai Technical Service Platform for Pollution Control and Resource Utilization of Organic Wastes, Shanghai, 200438, China |
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| Abstract: | Over the past two decades, biological assessment has been widely adopted as a tool for comprehensive monitoring of ambient water quality, and increasingly it is used for management and regulation. Presently, biocriteria are central to the pre-decisional draft regulatory framework the US Environmental Protection Agency is developing under a consent decree to implement Section 316(b) of the Clean Water Act. With the increasing integration of multi-metric bioassessment and biocriteria into environmental regulation, it becomes important to critically review the performance of the methods to ensure they are robust and reliable tools for determining water body impairment. This paper examines the strengths and weaknesses of current approaches to bioassessment, focusing on issues that derive from recent advances in theoretical and applied ecology. Two critically important insights into the structure and function of ecosystems are: (1) the dynamic character of ecosystems; and (2) the significance of context and scale. Ecological dynamics produce spatio-temporal variability, which presents significant challenges to the development of biological criteria. This challenge is highlighted by the large percentage of sites potentially affected by arbitrary decisions sometimes made in setting biocriteria thresholds. Multi-metric bioassessment has not taken adequate account of the multi-scaled nature of ecological systems. Consideration of spatial scale will be especially important as multi-metric bioassessment methods originally developed in streams are adapted to larger, more open systems such as large rivers, estuaries, and coastal waters, and for regulation of cooling water intake structures. |
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