|
|
BIOASSESSMENT TRAINING MANUAL
Measuring the Health of California Streams and River:
A methods manual for resource professionals, citizen monitors and natural
resources students second edition
(Harrington and Born, 2000)
Overview of manual
Order Manual
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
- Discusses the importance of citizens' involvement and offers recommendations
for a person wishing to become involved as a volunteer citizen monitor.
Chapter 3
- Describes the natural state of streams and rivers
- Discusses watershed hydrology and the various physical structures
forming river systems.
- Introduces stream chemistry, both inorganic and organic components
and how they contribute to the aquatic food web.
- Presents the River Continuum Concept, as a holistic view of interpreting
benthic macroinvertebrates' (BMIs) function in the aquatic system.
- Introduces and briefly describes the world of BMIs.
Chapter 4
- Focuses on the new definition, types and sources of water pollution
and how to detect problems stemming from it.
Chapter 5
- Offers an overview of the water quality regulations governing our
nation and our state
- Discusses Total Maximum Daily Loads. . Introduces the concept of
biocriteria.
Chapter 6
- Explores the concept and purpose of monitoring groups and which
California government agencies can provide assistance.
- Lists some of the ways these agencies help citizen groups and two
other entities within the state that may help monitoring groups work
more effectively.
- Introduces the intent and major elements of the California Stream
Bioassessment Procedure (CSBP) for Citizen Monitors and why monitoring
groups would want to use the CSBP.
Chapter 7
- Presents the concept of watershed assessment and the components
of a formal approach that citizen groups can implement.
- Discusses assessment of ambient water quality chemistry for rivers
and streams and lists the parameters which are required of the CSBP
and those which are optional.
- Details the level of physical/habitat and biological assessment.
- Explains how physical/habitat assessments for water quality differs
form habitat surveys used for fisheries investigation.
- Outlines the characteristics of a good biotic indicator, along
with reasons why the CSBP utilizes benthic macroinvertebrates for
assessing the health of California water bodies instead of fish or
algae.
Chapter 8
- Discusses the differences between point-source and non-point-source
sampling design.
- Outlines the complete procedures to conduct a physical/habitat
and biological assessment.
Chapter 9
- Discusses the three levels of benthic macroinvertebrate identification.
- Describes the two levels of taxonomic efforts recommended for citizen
monitors.
- Explains how to maintain field and voucher samples and reference
collections.
- Describes the steps to start a successful citizen laboratory and
to develop standard operating procedures.
Chapter 10
- Explains how to process the data produced from the laboratory identification
of the benthic macroinvertebrate samples.
- Lists the biological metrics that can be produced from the Level
1 and 2 Taxonomic Level, along with how to calculate them.
- Covers basic statistics and how they apply to bioassessment.
- Discusses rules for examining the data for outliers and significance.
- Introduces advanced concepts such as integrating the data into
a single score called an Index of Biological Integrity, comparing
the biological data with physical/habitat data and electronic storing
of the data.
Chapter 11
- Discusses Quality Assurance, or the process of guaranteeing that
you arecollecting credible data on the biological and physical condition
of streams and rivers.
- Discusses the field and laboratory work, data analysis and report
writing procedures to assure quality or Quality Control.
Chapters 12
- Presents background and introduction to taxonomy and the use of
the dichotomous keys.
- Gives some helpful hints on invertebrate identification.
- Lists professional taxonomic references and flyfishing entomology
books of interest.
Chapter 13
- Presents taxonomic keys to the major groups of aquatic macroinvertebrates
and descriptions of the non-insects
Chapter 14
- Presents the taxonomic keys and describes Mayfly families.
Chapter 15
- Presents the taxonomic keys and describes Stonefly families
Chapter 16
- Presents the taxonomic keys and describes Caddisfly families
Chapter 17
- Presents the taxonomic keys and describes Aquatic Fly families
Chapter 18
- Presents the taxonomic keys and describes the remaining insect
orders and families.
Return to Table of Contents
|
