The Experts below are selected from a list of 324 Experts worldwide ranked by ideXlab platform
Ángel Borja - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Forever young: The successful story of a marine Biotic Index.
Advances in marine biology, 2019Co-Authors: Ángel Borja, Guillem Chust, Iñigo MuxikaAbstract:Abstract In 2000, the AZTI's Marine Biotic Index (AMBI) was published and was one of a number of marine benthic indices development to assess the ecological status of soft-bottom macroinvertebrates. This Index, and its derivatives, has been very successful in its application to different geographical areas, across the world, as well as to different environments, from the intertidal to the abyssal, or from tidal freshwater to offshore habitats. In this review, we explain the story behind the AMBI development, and look for an explanation of the Index's success. For doing that, we comment on the current practicalities of the Index, we present the new AMBI species list, with 9251 taxa, we dismantle six myths around this Index, and examine the past and the future of the Index. We show that the solid ecological roots of the Index make it a robust tool to assess the status of marine benthic communities, at any time and environment. Hence, we think that it will be ‘forever young’ helping managers in taking informed decisions to improve benthic marine systems.
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Environmental Status Assessment Using DNA Metabarcoding: Towards a Genetics Based Marine Biotic Index (gAMBI)
PloS one, 2014Co-Authors: Eva Aylagas, Ángel Borja, Naiara Rodríguez-ezpeletaAbstract:Marine ecosystem protection and conservation initiatives rely on the assessment of ecological integrity and health status of marine environments. The AZTI's Marine Biotic Index (AMBI), which consists on using macroinvertebrate diversity as indicator of ecosystem health, is used worldwide for this purpose. Yet, this Index requires taxonomic assignment of specimens, which typically involves a time and resource consuming visual identification of each sample. DNA barcoding or metabarcoding are potential harmonized, faster and cheaper alternatives for species identification, although the suitability of these methods for easing the implementation of the AMBI is yet to be evaluated. Here, we analyze the requirements for the implementation of a genetics based AMBI (gAMBI), and show, using available sequence data, that information about presence/absence of the most frequently occurring species provides accurate AMBI values. Our results set the basics for the implementation of the gAMBI, which has direct implications for a faster and cheaper marine monitoring and health status assessment.
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Assessing proposed modifications to the AZTI marine Biotic Index (AMBI), using biomass and production
Ecological Indicators, 2012Co-Authors: Iñigo Muxika, Ángel Borja, Paul J. Somerfield, Richard M. WarwickAbstract:Initially described in 2000, AZTI's Marine Biotic Index (AMBI) aims to assess alterations in communities of soft-bottom marine benthic macroinvertebrates caused by anthropogenic impacts. Although it was designed to be used in European estuaries and coasts this Index, based on Pearson and Rosenberg's model of responses to organic enrichment, is being used successfully worldwide. Taking into account statistical difficulties associated with the use of raw abundance data, modifications to the Index were recently proposed. These included transforming abundances prior to its calculation, or to use data other than abundances which might be more functionally relevant (such as biomass or production data). Using data from the Basque coast and estuaries (northern Spain), collected between 1995 and 2009, where the evolution of human pressures and restoration actions in the area may be taken into account, the performance of AMBI is compared to that of the proposed modifications in order to assess their usefulness. Despite large variations in the form and nature of the input data, all variations of AMBI Index are shown to be highly correlated, even when presence/absence data are used. New boundaries between disturbance categories were calculated, reflecting inter-relationships between different forms of the Index. The disturbance classification obtained from all variations using the recalculated boundaries agreed closely with that derived from AMBI. The finding that AMBI values calculated with presence/absence data are potentially useful opens up many possibilities, such as determining the status of assemblages retrospectively using historical data.
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Calibration and validation of the AZTI's Marine Biotic Index (AMBI) for Southern California marine bays
Ecological Indicators, 2012Co-Authors: Heliana Teixeira, Ángel Borja, Stephen B. Weisberg, J. Ananda Ranasinghe, Donald B. Cadien, Ronald G. Velarde, Lawrence L. Lovell, Dean Pasko, Charles A. Phillips, David E. MontagneAbstract:Abstract Benthic indices are useful indicators of sediment condition, but many indices are difficult to employ because they require large calibration datasets. The AZTI's Marine Biotic Index (AMBI) requires minimal local calibration, but it was developed in Europe and the validity of its extension to distant regions is unclear. Here we compare its performance in Southern California's marine bays with that of the Benthic Response Index (BRI), a locally derived data-intensive Index. AMBI was calibrated in four ways: (1) using the original AMBI species’ classifications developed in Europe; (2) augmenting the original classifications with closely related taxa, following AMBI guidelines; (3) using local expertise to independently classify taxa; and (4) revision of the local expert classifications by European developers of the Index. These approaches were applied to a 685 sample data set and assessed relative to the BRI by comparing samples’ classification from best to worst and by evaluating the level of agreement in assigning samples into four condition categories. The AMBI was validated against environmental proxies of disturbance and expert judgement, using consensus agreement about sample condition developed by nine benthic ecologists. The first AMBI approach did not work well, as only 24% of the 928 taxa were on the original AMBI species list, resulting in only 11% of the samples meeting the required 20% of classified individuals for AMBI application. The other approaches classified substantially more taxa, allowing application to 75–98% of the samples. Both of these approaches were significantly correlated with the BRI, though the correlations were lower than between the AMBI runs. None of the AMBI approaches, though, compared well with either the BRI or the validation data when placing samples into perturbation categories, with the AMBI having a greater central tendency. AMBI categorized less than 5% of the samples as reference compared to almost one-third of the samples by the experts or BRI, and substantially underestimating the number of severely affected samples. Species most responsible for disagreements between BRI and AMBI approaches were identified. Four modifications to enhance AMBI performance were identified: (1) incorporate local expertise in assigning ecological classifications, (2) use transformed abundance weighting to reduce the effect of dominant species, (3) calibrate the categorization scaling using expert judgement, and (4) use the AMBI in combination with other measures, such as the M-AMBI. The success of these modifications is specific to this study, but they are likely to enhance AMBI's performance worldwide.
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Testing the applicability of a Marine Biotic Index (AMBI) to assessing the ecological quality of soft-bottom benthic communities, in the South America Atlantic region
Marine pollution bulletin, 2005Co-Authors: Pablo Muniz, Natalia Venturini, Ana Maria Setúbal Pires-vanin, Luiz Roberto Tommasi, Ángel BorjaAbstract:Recently, several monitoring programmes have been undertaken to evaluate the impact of different anthropogenic activities, upon a range of coastal ecosystems located in the South-western Atlantic. In the present contribution, the applicability of the AZTI's Marine Biotic Index (AMBI) is tested, to establish the benthic health of the ecosystem using these data sets. As the AMBI was created previously for use in European estuarine and coastal environments, its general applicability to new geographical locations is discussed. In general, the results are in agreement with those obtained using traditional univariate and multivariate methods. Some inconsistent results are observed, when low abundances and/or number of taxa are recorded in the samples. Moreover, when the macrofauna samples are dominated by large nematodes, the classification of the benthic ecosystem health using AMBI is not consistent with previous results achieved applying other statistical techniques. Thus, parallel to the application of this Index to a wider extend, the complementary use of different indices and/or methods is recommended to assess confidently the environmental quality of a coastal area.
Paolo Madoni - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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The allocation of the ciliate Drepanomonas revoluta to its correct functional group in evaluating the sludge Biotic Index
European Journal of Protistology, 2000Co-Authors: Paolo MadoniAbstract:Summary The position of the ciliate Drepanomonas revoluta Penard 1922 in the functional groups of the protistan community of the activated-sludge process was investigated. The protists colonizing three different activated-sludge plants receiving domestic and industrial wastewater were monitored for about four months. The sludge Biotic Index (SBI) method was applied to the observed protistan community and the results were compared with chemical and operational parameters. Statistical analysis revealed a negative correlation between D. revoluta and crawling ciliates such as Aspidisca cicada and Acineria uncinata , possibly due to competition. Thus, the hypothesis was put forward that D. revoluta is a crawling form rather a free-swimming form in the activated sludge.
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A sludge Biotic Index (SBI) for the evaluation of the biological performance of activated sludge plants based on the microfauna analysis
Water Research, 1994Co-Authors: Paolo MadoniAbstract:Abstract An objective Index, the Sludge Biotic Index (SBI), based on the microfauna associated with activated-sludge mixed liquor, has been devised to monitor activated-sludge plant performance. The proposed method makes it possible to define the biological quality of the sludge using numerical values (Biotic Index) of 0–10, and to group SBI values into four quality classes. The method is based on two principles. First, the dominance of the microfauna keygroups changes in relation to the environmental and operational conditions of the plant. In particular, some protozoa such as small flagellates and the ciliates Vorticella microstoma and Opercularia spp have a negative influence on the Index value. Secondly, the number of morphological species is reduced as the performance of the plant gets worse. The advantage of this method over other schemes is that it provides numerical values which enable the operator to monitor the prevalent plant operating conditions on a daily basis.
Yun-fen Shen - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Use of the aquatic protozoa to formulate a community Biotic Index for an urban water system.
The Science of the total environment, 2005Co-Authors: Jian-guo Jiang, Yun-fen ShenAbstract:Protozoan were collected from 16 stations in water system of Changde City (China) using the PFU method. Sampling programs were conduced on a yearly basis, with seasonal frequency at diverse sites in the water system and 488 species of protozoa was identified. At the same time, Water sampling from these stations was conducted and various water chemical parameters, including DO, COD, BOD5, NH3, TP, and Volatile Phenol, were analyzed. The aim of the research was, on one hand, using chemical method to take an investigation to the water pollution status of Changde City; on the other hand, using protozoan to make an evaluation to the water quality. With the chemical water parameters and protozoa data, a Biotic Index was derived for the investigated region. The species pollution value (SPV) of 469 protozoa species was established, and the community pollution value (CPV) calculated from SPV was used to evaluate water quality. The method of the Biotic Index was tested and the result showed that CPV calculated from SPV had a close correlation with the degree of water pollution (p < 0.00001). This indicated that the method of the Biotic Index is reliable. The water quality degrees divided by CPV were suggested. (c) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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Application and validation of a new Biotic Index using data from several water systems
Journal of environmental monitoring : JEM, 2003Co-Authors: Jian-guo Jiang, Yun-fen ShenAbstract:Protozoans of Lake Donghu were collected from five stations using the PFU method. The sampling was conducted for one year and two times a month. The aim of this research was to test the applicability of a new protozoa Biotic Index, species pollution value (SPV) and community pollution value (CPV), established by the authors using data from the River Hanjiang. Each station's CPV was calculated from the SPV and the correlation analysis between the CPV and the comprehensive chemical Index of stations I, II, III showed a significant correlation between them. The pollution status of the five stations was correctly evaluated by the CPV. These results suggested that the Biotic Index could be applied in water systems other than the River Hanjiang. The SPV of some protozoa species in Lake Donghu, not observed in the River Hanjiang were established. In order to further test the applicability of the Biotic Index, protozoan and chemistry data from the Rivers Torrente Stirone and Parma of Italy were used. The results showed that the CPV for the two rivers had a close relationship with the chemical water quality, which indicated that the Biotic Index could be applied in other parts of the world for the monitoring and estimating of water quality. Since the results of testing and verifying the Biotic Index in some other water systems in China were also satisfactory, this indicated that the Biotic Index has an extensive suitability for freshwater ecosystems. As long as more than 50% of the species in a sample have a SPV, the CPV calculated from the SPV is reliable for monitoring and evaluating water quality.
Robert J. Danehy - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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development and validation of an aquatic fine sediment Biotic Index
Environmental Management, 2012Co-Authors: Christina D. Relyea, Wayne G Minshall, Robert J. DanehyAbstract:The Fine Sediment Biotic Index (FSBI) is a regional, stressor-specific biomonitoring Index to assess fine sediment (<2 mm) impacts on macroinvertebrate communities in northwestern US streams. We examined previously collected data of benthic macroinvertebrate assemblages and substrate particle sizes for 1,139 streams spanning 16 western US Level III Ecoregions to determine macroinvertebrate sensitivity (mostly at species level) to fine sediment. We developed FSBI for four ecoregion groupings that include nine of the ecoregions. The grouping were: the Coast (Coast Range ecoregion) (136 streams), Northern Mountains (Cascades, N. Rockies, ID Batholith ecoregions) (428 streams), Rockies (Middle Rockies, Southern Rockies ecoregions) (199 streams), and Basin and Plains (Columbia Plateau, Snake River Basin, Northern Basin and Range ecoregions) (262 streams). We excluded rare taxa and taxa identified at coarse taxonomic levels, including Chironomidae. This reduced the 685 taxa from all data sets to 206. Of these 93 exhibited some sensitivity to fine sediment which we classified into four categories: extremely, very, moderately, and slightly sensitive; containing 11, 22, 30, and 30 taxa, respectively. Categories were weighted and a FSBI score calculated by summing the sensitive taxa found in a stream. There were no orders or families that were solely sensitive or resistant to fine sediment. Although, among the three orders commonly regarded as indicators of high water quality, the Plecoptera (5), Trichoptera (3), and Ephemeroptera (2) contained all but one of the species or species groups classified as extremely sensitive. Index validation with an independent data set of 255 streams found FSBI scores to accurately predict both high and low levels of measured fine sediment.
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Development and validation of an aquatic Fine Sediment Biotic Index.
Environmental management, 2011Co-Authors: Christina D. Relyea, G. Wayne Minshall, Robert J. DanehyAbstract:The Fine Sediment Biotic Index (FSBI) is a regional, stressor-specific biomonitoring Index to assess fine sediment (
Jian-guo Jiang - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Development of a new Biotic Index to assess freshwater pollution.
Environmental pollution (Barking Essex : 1987), 2005Co-Authors: Jian-guo JiangAbstract:We developed a new Biotic Index of species pollution value (SPV) and community pollution value (CPV) based on the correlation of protozoan communities with chemical water quality to assess freshwater pollution. Five hundred and twenty-three species of protozoa SPV were established based on the data of River Hangjiang and Lake Donghu. The present research was conducted in order to further consummate the Biotic Index. Protozoa of the water system in Changde City were collected from 16 stations using the PFU method and the water chemical parameters of the stations were analyzed. The results showed that CPV calculated from SPV had a close correlation with the degree of water pollution (p < 0.00001), which indicated that the method is reliable. By combining the data of River Hangjiang, Lake Donghu and Changde City, the final form of SPV was accomplished and the SPV list increased to 757. The ultimate water standard evaluated by CPV calculated from SPV was proposed.
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Use of the aquatic protozoa to formulate a community Biotic Index for an urban water system.
The Science of the total environment, 2005Co-Authors: Jian-guo Jiang, Yun-fen ShenAbstract:Protozoan were collected from 16 stations in water system of Changde City (China) using the PFU method. Sampling programs were conduced on a yearly basis, with seasonal frequency at diverse sites in the water system and 488 species of protozoa was identified. At the same time, Water sampling from these stations was conducted and various water chemical parameters, including DO, COD, BOD5, NH3, TP, and Volatile Phenol, were analyzed. The aim of the research was, on one hand, using chemical method to take an investigation to the water pollution status of Changde City; on the other hand, using protozoan to make an evaluation to the water quality. With the chemical water parameters and protozoa data, a Biotic Index was derived for the investigated region. The species pollution value (SPV) of 469 protozoa species was established, and the community pollution value (CPV) calculated from SPV was used to evaluate water quality. The method of the Biotic Index was tested and the result showed that CPV calculated from SPV had a close correlation with the degree of water pollution (p < 0.00001). This indicated that the method of the Biotic Index is reliable. The water quality degrees divided by CPV were suggested. (c) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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Application and validation of a new Biotic Index using data from several water systems
Journal of environmental monitoring : JEM, 2003Co-Authors: Jian-guo Jiang, Yun-fen ShenAbstract:Protozoans of Lake Donghu were collected from five stations using the PFU method. The sampling was conducted for one year and two times a month. The aim of this research was to test the applicability of a new protozoa Biotic Index, species pollution value (SPV) and community pollution value (CPV), established by the authors using data from the River Hanjiang. Each station's CPV was calculated from the SPV and the correlation analysis between the CPV and the comprehensive chemical Index of stations I, II, III showed a significant correlation between them. The pollution status of the five stations was correctly evaluated by the CPV. These results suggested that the Biotic Index could be applied in water systems other than the River Hanjiang. The SPV of some protozoa species in Lake Donghu, not observed in the River Hanjiang were established. In order to further test the applicability of the Biotic Index, protozoan and chemistry data from the Rivers Torrente Stirone and Parma of Italy were used. The results showed that the CPV for the two rivers had a close relationship with the chemical water quality, which indicated that the Biotic Index could be applied in other parts of the world for the monitoring and estimating of water quality. Since the results of testing and verifying the Biotic Index in some other water systems in China were also satisfactory, this indicated that the Biotic Index has an extensive suitability for freshwater ecosystems. As long as more than 50% of the species in a sample have a SPV, the CPV calculated from the SPV is reliable for monitoring and evaluating water quality.