Assessment of Biotic Integrity of the Coastal Freshwater Tidal Zone of a Temperate Estuary of South America through Multiple Indicators

The aim of this study was to propose an index [Index of Biotic Integrity for the Río de la Plata (IBIRP)] formulated from a minimum of information-rich metrics related to biological integrity for evaluation of the coastal freshwater tidal zone of the Río de la Plata estuary. A total of 23 sites were...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Estuaries and coasts 2012-09, Vol.35 (5), p.1328-1339
Main Authors: Gómez, N., Licursi, M., Bauer, D. E., Ambrosio, E. S., Capítulo, A. Rodrigues
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal and plant ecology
Animal, plant and microbial ecology
Anthropogenic factors
Aquatic life
Bacillariophyceae
Biological and medical sciences
Brackish
Brackish water ecosystems
Coastal ecology
Coastal Sciences
Coasts
Diatoms
Earth and Environmental Science
Ecology
Environment
Environmental indicators
Environmental Management
Estuaries
Eutrophication
Factor analysis
Fresh water
Freshwater & Marine Ecology
Freshwater ecology
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Land use
Marine ecology
Phytoplankton
Pollution index
Synecology
Tanaidacea
Tides
Water and Health
Water quality
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The aim of this study was to propose an index [Index of Biotic Integrity for the Río de la Plata (IBIRP)] formulated from a minimum of information-rich metrics related to biological integrity for evaluation of the coastal freshwater tidal zone of the Río de la Plata estuary. A total of 23 sites were selected along 170 km of shoreline (34°27′10″ S, 58°30′21″ W and 35°23′28″ S, 57°08′50″ W), being influenced by different land uses. We explored 36 biotic descriptors (designated candidate metrics), each of which is considered as an environmental indicator, and selected four metrics: two related to phytoplankton assemblage (planktonic cyanobacterial density and phytoplanktonic total density) and two linked to benthic assemblages, the diatoms (percent most tolerant taxa), and the invertebrates (percent Tanaidacea). The metrics that were chosen to integrate the IBIRP provide valuable information about the biotic integrity both in terms of time and space. The multimetric index can assume values between 0 (very bad status) and 10 (very good status). The IBIRP correlated significantly with the second (p
ISSN:1559-2723
1559-2731
DOI:10.1007/s12237-012-9528-5