Recently, the biological assessment of streams are developed to assess the ecological integrity in many countries. multi-metric index is one of the main methods for assessing the ecological integrity of stream which composed with chemical, physical an...
Recently, the biological assessment of streams are developed to assess the ecological integrity in many countries. multi-metric index is one of the main methods for assessing the ecological integrity of stream which composed with chemical, physical and biological variables of environments. In Korea, the Benthic Macroinvertebrates Index (BMI) is currently used for assessment of streams on the national biological programs, but BMI does not reflect environmental variables other than water quality in streams. So it is difficult to represent the comprehensive status of stream. In response, This study aims to develop the Benthic Macroinvertebrate-based Multimetric Index (BMMI) to assess the ecological integrity of streams in Korea.
We used the data from 931 sampling sites of national monitoring programs from 2010 to 2020. Firstly, we categorized stream to six types based on catchment area and altitude. And we performed the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) of 8 disturbance variables that were used to screen for reference and disturbed streams. We used the first principal component score (PC1 score) as a generalized disturbance gradient and select reference and disturbed streams of each stream type by the 25th and 75th percentile value.
Secondly, We selected appropriate metrics to develop the BMMI using statistical analysis. We excluded metrics (1) with a coefficient of variation (C.V) greater than or equal to 1 or with too many zero, and selected metrics (2) with high discriminatory power by check Wilks' lambda, and (3) with high significance between reference and disturbed streams by independent samples t-test.
One of the most influential core metrics were selected from each of six categories: richness, composition, biotic index, feeding functional groups, habitat orientation groups, sensitivity. Core metrics for each stream type were quantified by a continuous scoring system with a score of 0 to 10 and rescaled to BMMI score of 0 to 100. BMMI was classified by aggregating the core metric scores, and the value range was classified to five classes (very bad, bad, moderate, good, very good). BMMI developed in this study was clearly distinguished from reference and disturbed streams, and showed significant correlation with various environmental factors. For these reasons, BMMI is considered suitable for assessment of ecological integrity of streams in Korea.