'Urbanization Influences on Aquatic Communities in Northeastern Illinois Streams,' by Faith A. Fitzpatrick, Mitchell A. Harris, Terri L. Arnold, and Kevin D. Richards

摘要

Most water quality assessments based on biotic health address either macroinvertebrate or fish community conditions, but rarely are the two communities used conjunctively. Even fewer studies exist that compare indices based on the two different aquatic communities. The work by Fitzpatrick et al. (2004) addresses the influence of urbanization on aquatic communities using both macroinvertebrate and fish biotic indices, but they do not use their data to compare fish and macroinvertebrate biotic indices directly. They conclude that the Illinois fish alternative index of biotic integrity (AIBI) and macroinvertebrate index (MBI) scores respond similarly to land use changes, decreasing as agricultural land undergoes urbanization. The authors point out that macroinvertebrate assessments are useful in limited situations where fisheries data are unavailable or in streams with limited restricted aquatic resource. The protocol in Illinois is to use the MBI only when fish data are not available. This begs two questions: how well do fish and macroinvertebrate indices of biotic integrity (IBIs) correlate and do fish and macroinvertebrate IBIs respond similarly to stressors?