An index of biotic integrity characterizing fish populations and the ecological quality of Flandrian water bodies
Belpaire, C.; Smolders, R.; Vanden Auweele, I.; Ercken, D.; Breine, J.; Van Thuyne, G.; Ollevier, F.P. (2000). An index of biotic integrity characterizing fish populations and the ecological quality of Flandrian water bodies. Hydrobiologia 434(1-3): 17-33. http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/A:1004026121254
In: Hydrobiologia. Springer: The Hague. ISSN 0018-8158; e-ISSN 1573-5117, more
|  |
| Keywords |
Abundance
Aquatic communities
Aquatic organisms > Freshwater organisms > Fish > Freshwater fish
Body conditions
Composition > Community composition
Environments > Aquatic environment > Inland water environment
Freshwater environments
Population factors > Condition factor
Species diversity
Trophic relationships
Trophic structure
Water bodies
Pisces [WoRMS]
Belgium [Marine Regions]; Belgium, Flanders [Marine Regions]
Fresh water |
| Author keywords |
Belgium; Flanders; rivers; Index of Biotic Integrity; fish; water pollution; ecological water quality |
| Abstract |
A multimetric fish Index of Biotic Integrity (IBI) was composed to assess the biotic integrity of Flandrian water bodies. As fish communities differ substantially between standing waters, running waters of the bream zone and running waters of the barbel zone, eight candidate metrics for each of these water types or zones were identified, representing three major classes of biological attributes. These are species richness and composition, fish condition and abundance, trophic composition. The metrics were tested and modified where needed. The IBI was applied throughout Flanders on 104 locations in standing waters, 500 locations in waters of the bream zone and 257 locations in waters of the barbel zone. Standing waters scored substantially different from running waters. Standing waters rarely contained no fish at all, but their fish communities were very often poor to very poor. Waters of the bream and barbel zone were often fishless (respectively 40% and 35% of all locations contain no fish), but the locations with fish usually scored reasonable to poor. Only 18.5% of all locations were classified as reasonable to excellent (IBI classes 4 or lower on a scale from 1 to 9) and were considered to satisfy the basic ecological quality demands. The Leie-, Dijle-, Dender- and Schelde-basins had a very poor quality (more than 50% of the locations contained no fish). The Maas-, Grote and Kleine Nete-basins scored rather well, with respectively, 44%, 48% and 68% of the locations achieving an IBI of 4 or lower. The IBI is a valuable and complementary tool to assess the ecological quality of water bodies as suggested in the proposal for a Water Framework Directive by the European Commission. |
| Datasets (2) |
- Breine J, Verreycken H, De Boeck T, Brosens D, Desmet P (2014): VIS - Fishes in estuarine waters in Flanders, Belgium. Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO). Dataset/Occurrence., more
- Van Thuyne G, Breine J, Verreycken H, De Boeck T, Brosens D, Desmet P (2013): VIS - Fishes in inland waters in Flanders, Belgium. Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO). Dataset/Occurrence., more
|
|
