Programa de Pós-graduação em Conservação e Manejo de Recursos Naturais, Universidade Estadual do Oeste do Paraná, Bairro Universitário, Rua Universitária, 2069, Cascavel, Paraná, Brazil.
Programa de Pós-graduação em Ecologia de Ambientes Aquáticos Continentais, Universidade Estadual de Maringá, Avenida Colombo, 5790, Zona 7, Maringá, Paraná, Brazil.
Environ Manage. 2019 Nov;64(5):661-673. doi: 10.1007/s00267-019-01210-6. Epub 2019 Oct 7.
We developed MMI models that combine responses of fish and benthic macroinvertebrates for the evaluation of the biotic integrity of streams. The MMI was developed using a dataset covering stream sampling sites in the South of Brazil. Reference streams were identified based on the physical and chemical conditions and riparian vegetation. Thirty-four metrics were calculated and evaluated for their range, redundancy, and responsiveness to the environmental perturbation. We applied a robust approach to select the most sensitive metrics and MMI models based on the complexity and ability of the index in distinguishing impacted and reference sites. The four best MMI models selected are composed of different combinations of the eight metrics: % fish herbivorous, fish evenness, fish abundance, % macroinvertebrate shredder; % macroinvertebrate predator; % macroinvertebrate tolerant, % macroinvertebrate swimmer, and % macroinvertebrate burrower. All of the MMI models selected presented good performance in distinguishing reference streams from those impacted by different forms of land use. This study is one of the few attempts to use more than one biological assemblage in a single-multimetric index. Accordingly, we believe that the unified MMI we developed could be a useful tool to assist in the conservation and management of water resources in Neotropical regions, specially, in the implementation of ecological integrity tools more cost-effectively.
我们开发了一种结合鱼类和底栖大型无脊椎动物反应的 MMI 模型，用于评估溪流的生物完整性。MMI 是使用涵盖巴西南部溪流采样点的数据集开发的。参考溪流是根据物理和化学条件以及河岸植被确定的。计算了 34 个指标，并评估了它们的范围、冗余性和对环境干扰的响应能力。我们应用了一种稳健的方法，根据指数的复杂性和区分受影响和参考站点的能力，选择最敏感的指标和 MMI 模型。选择的四个最佳 MMI 模型由八个指标的不同组合组成：鱼类草食性百分比、鱼类均匀度、鱼类丰度、底栖大型无脊椎动物撕食者百分比；底栖大型无脊椎动物捕食者百分比；底栖大型无脊椎动物耐受性百分比、底栖大型无脊椎动物游泳者百分比和底栖大型无脊椎动物穴居者百分比。所有选择的 MMI 模型在区分受不同形式土地利用影响的参考溪流方面都表现出良好的性能。这项研究是少数尝试在单一多指标指数中使用多种生物组合的研究之一。因此，我们相信我们开发的统一 MMI 可以成为协助保护和管理新热带地区水资源的有用工具，特别是在更有效地实施生态完整性工具方面。
