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Proposed Biotic and Habitat Indices for use in Kansas Streams Report No. 35 of the Kansas Biological Survey The University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045 February 1988 Donald G. Huggins and Mary Moffett Support for this project was provided cooperatively by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment and the Kansas Biological Survey under KU Acct. No. 5464-x705. Second printing (electronic reformatting), November 2003 1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We would like to thank the Biological Survey staff for their helpful suggestions, comments, and contributions to this project. Assistance from Paul Liechti, Len Ferrington, Alex Slater, Franz Schmidt and Cory Koeppen were invaluable and greatly appreciated. We give special recognition to Judy McPherson for her highly skilled technical assistance in completing the final manuscript. The direction provided us by the Water Quality Assessment staff of the Bureau of Water Protection (Kansas Department of Health and Environment) added much to the success of this study. We are indebted to Donald Snethen and Joe Arruda, both of KDHE, for their patience and guidance through these efforts. We especially wish to thank Dr. Ed Martinko, director of the Biological Survey, for providing the additional funding required to complete this project in the comprehensive manner that we, as scientists, felt was necessary to meet all study objectives. i TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS............................................................................................................. i TABLE OF CONTENTS................................................................................................................ ii AN INTRODUCTION TO BIOTIC INDICES .............................................................................. 1 A REVIEW OF OTHER BIOTIC INDICES.................................................................................. 6 The Saprobic Systems................................................................................................................. 7 Oligochaete Indices..................................................................................................................... 9 Beck’s Biotic Index................................................................................................................... 10 Beak’s “River” Index................................................................................................................ 11 The Trent Biotic Index.............................................................................................................. 12 BMWP “score” ......................................................................................................................... 13 Chandler’s Biotic Score (CBS)................................................................................................. 13 Average Chandler Biotic Score (ACBS) .................................................................................. 15 Chutter’s Index.......................................................................................................................... 16 Hilsenhoff’s Index .................................................................................................................... 18 Belgian Biotic Index ................................................................................................................. 21 Summary of reviewed biotic indices......................................................................................... 23 A BIOTIC INDEX FOR KANSAS .............................................................................................. 28 Requirements for a Kansas Biotic Index .................................................................................. 28 Proposed Kansas Biotic Index (Chutter-Hilsenhoff Biotic Index) ........................................... 32 HABITAT DEVELOPMENT INDEX......................................................................................... 34 Introduction............................................................................................................................... 34 Macroinvertebrate sampling ..................................................................................................... 35 Habitat diversity........................................................................................................................ 36 Proposed Habitat Development Index (HDI) ........................................................................... 38 Calculation of the HDI.............................................................................................................. 44 DATABASE FOR TOLERANCE DETERMINATIONS ........................................................... 46 Introduction to the database...................................................................................................... 46 ii Types of information utilized.................................................................................................... 47 Ecological literature.............................................................................................................. 48 Toxicology literature............................................................................................................. 48 Tolerance values by others.................................................................................................... 50 Professional judgment........................................................................................................... 51 Kansas and regional data bases............................................................................................. 52 General process used to establish tolerance values................................................................... 53 Pollutant categories................................................................................................................... 53 Nutrients and oxygen-demanding substances (NOD)........................................................... 55 Suspended solids and sediments ........................................................................................... 59 Salinity .................................................................................................................................. 63 Heavy Metals (HM) .............................................................................................................. 65 Agricultural pesticides .......................................................................................................... 67 Persistent organic compounds (POC) ................................................................................... 69 TOLERANCE VALUES FOR KANSAS INSECTS................................................................... 71 List of tolerance values for six pollutant categories ................................................................. 71 Summary of our tolerance values for Kansas and comparisons to other states........................ 71 Summary of tolerance values for the six pollutant categories .................................................. 73 DISCUSSION............................................................................................................................... 76 LITERATURE CITED ................................................................................................................. 84 TABLES ..................................................................................................................................... 101 FIGURES.................................................................................................................................... 112 APPENDIX I. – Sample Questionnaire and Responses ............................................................. 125 APPENDIX II. – List of Proposed Tolerance Values................................................................. 128 iii AN INTRODUCTION TO BIOTIC INDICES In the study of water pollution and the related “health” of aquatic ecosystems, three general approaches have found universal appeal: indices of diversity, similarity indices and biotic indices. The primary purpose of this section is to review, discuss, and evaluate proposed biotic indices. General comparisons among the three general evaluation approaches are made when appropriate. All discussion refers to the use of macroinvertebrates in lotic aquatic environments. A more thorough discussion of the comparative merits of diversity, biotic and similarity indices can be found in Washington (1984). Several new indices have been proposed since the publication of Washington’s review and some existing indices have been modified. All are attempts to improve the basic usefulness of a biotic index in identifying biological change often associated with anthropogenic environmental impacts on aquatic systems. There are basic differences between biotic indices and diversity and similarity indices although all are often used to indicate stress or changes in biological communities. Indices of diversity and similarity are quantitative measurements of total community structure. Diversity indices can be used to assess biological quality of various aquatic environments by giving a measure of the structure of the total macroinvertebrate community at each site. A similarity index also uses total community structure parameters, but unlike a diversity index it cannot give a value for a single site. Similarity indices are comparative measurements and can only indicate similarity of the structure