The Index of Biological Integrity and the bootstrap: Can random sampling error affect stream impairment decisions?

Dolph, Christine, L.
Sheshukov, Aleksey, Y.
Chizinski, Christopher, J.
Vondracek, Bruce
Wilson, Bruce
2009
Thumbnail Image

View/Download File

Dolph-et-al-2010-Ecological-Indicators.pdf (476.44 KB)

Persistent link to this item

http://hdl.handle.net/11299/183573
Statistics
View Statistics

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Title

The Index of Biological Integrity and the bootstrap: Can random sampling error affect stream impairment decisions?

Authors

Published Date

2009

Publisher

Type

Report

Abstract

Multimetric indices, such as the Index of Biological Integrity (IBI), are increasingly used bymanagement agencies to determine whether surface water quality is impaired. However, important questions about the variability of these indices have not been thoroughly addressed in the scientific literature. In this study, we used a bootstrap approach to quantify variability associated with fish IBIs developed for streams in two Minnesota river basins. We further placed this variability into a management context by comparing it to impairment thresholds currently used in water quality determinations for Minnesota streams. We found that 95% confidence intervals ranged as high as 40 points for IBIs scored on a 0–100 point scale. However, on average, 90% of IBI scores calculated from bootstrap replicate samples for a given stream site yielded the same impairment status as the original IBI score.We suggest that sampling variability in IBI scores is related to both the number of fish and the number of rare taxa in a field collection. A comparison of the effects of different scoring methods on IBI variability indicates that a continuous scoring method may reduce the amount of bias in IBI scores.

Keywords

Description

Related to

Replaces

License

Collections

Publications

Series/Report Number

Funding information

Isbn identifier

Doi identifier

Previously Published Citation

Suggested citation

Dolph, Christine, L.; Sheshukov, Aleksey, Y.; Chizinski, Christopher, J.; Vondracek, Bruce; Wilson, Bruce. (2009). The Index of Biological Integrity and the bootstrap: Can random sampling error affect stream impairment decisions?. Retrieved from the University Digital Conservancy, https://hdl.handle.net/11299/183573.

Content distributed via the University Digital Conservancy may be subject to additional license and use restrictions applied by the depositor. By using these files, users agree to the Terms of Use. Materials in the UDC may contain content that is disturbing and/or harmful. For more information, please see our statement on harmful content in digital repositories.