Ontario Benthos Biomonitoring Network
ONTARIO BENTHOS BIOMONITORING NETWORK PROTOCOL MANUAL Version 1.0 May 2004 Ontario Benthos Biomonitoring Network Protocol Manual Version 1.0 May 2004 Report prepared by: C. Jones1, K.M. Somers1, B. Craig2, and T. Reynoldson3 1Ontario Ministry of Environment, Environmental Monitoring and Reporting Branch, Biomonitoring Section, Dorset Environmental Science Centre, 1026 Bellwood Acres Road, P.O. Box 39, Dorset, ON, P0A 1E0 2Environment Canada, EMAN Coordinating Office, 867 Lakeshore Road, Burlington, ON, L7R 4A6 3Acadia Centre for Estuarine Research, Box 115 Acadia University, Wolfville, Nova Scotia, B4P 2R6 2 1 Executive Summary The main purpose of the Ontario Benthos Biomonitoring Network (OBBN) is to enable assessment of aquatic ecosystem condition using benthos as indicators of water and habitat quality. This manual is a companion to the OBBN Terms of Reference, which detail the network’s objectives, deliverables, development schedule, and implementation plan. Herein we outline recommended sampling, sample processing, and analytical procedures for the OBBN. To test whether an aquatic system has been impaired by human activity, a reference condition approach (RCA) is used to compare benthos at “test sites” (where biological condition is in question) to benthos from multiple, minimally impacted “reference sites”. Because types and abundances of benthos are determined by environmental attributes (e.g., catchment size, substrate type), a combination of catchment- and site-scale habitat characteristics are used to ensure test sites are compared to appropriate reference sites. A variety of minimally impacted sites must be sampled in order to evaluate the wide range of potential test sites in Ontario. We detail sampling and sample processing methods for lakes, streams, and wetlands.
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