Biological Monitoring in Canada

8/13/2019 Biological Monitoring in Canada

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Nuria Valds Mediavilla

01/20/2010European master of inland water quality assessment


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1. Type of water bodies: lakes, rivers and wetlands

2. Water management

3. General monitoring

4. Biological monitoring

1. CABIN2. EMAN

3. CAISIN

5. Grat Lakes monitoring Programs

1. Legislative Framework

2. Great Lakes monitoring and Gap analysis


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1.LakesCanada has more lakes area than any other countryin the world.Great Lakes: boundary between Canada-USA

it is an important area for both countries: water supply,

transport, hydroelectricity, site of industrial, commercial,agricultural, and urban developmentproblems: deteriorating water quality through industrialand municipal uses, fluctuating water levels, flooding, andshoreline erosion, acid rain, airborne toxics, depletion of

wetland areas, increased demands on the shoreline landbase, the impacts associated with the unintentionalintroduction of exotic species, and climate change.


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2. Rivers

Rivers in Canada flow into five ocean-equivalent drainagebasins: the Pacific, Arctic and Atlantic oceans, Hudson Bay andthe Gulf of Mexico. The individual river system with thelargest drainage area is the Mackenzie River, with 1.805.200square kilometres.The Canadian Heritage Rivers System was established in 1984to conserve and protect the best examples of Canadas riverheritage, to give them national recognition, and to encouragethe public to enjoy and appreciate them

3. WetlandsWetlands cover about 14% of the land area of Canada.Recently, wetlands have become an increasingly scarceresource in settled areas of the country. Throughout Canada,wetlands have been adversely affected by land use practicesthat have resulted in vegetation destruction, nutrient and

toxic loading, sedimentation, and altered flow regimes.


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Federal Government

Provincial GovernmentCanada Municipals Government

TerritoriesAboriginal Government

- Shared federal-provincial responsibilities include:- agriculture;- significant national water issues- health.

- federal government fisheries, navigation, federal lands, and internationalrelations, including responsibilities related to the management of boundary waters

shared with the United States.

- Canadian provinces and one of the territories have the primary jurisdiction overmost areas of water management and protection. Most of those governmentsdelegate certain authorities to municipalities, especially the drinking watertreatment and distribution and wastewater treatment operations of urban areas.


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Environment Canadas Freshwater Quality Monitoringactivities are focused on the assessment and reporting on

status, trends and surveillance in fulfillment of many federal

and international legislative and reporting obligations.

Three different parameters are measured in this monitoring:

- Physical parameters

- Chemical parameters- Biological parameters: CABIN


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1. CABIN (Canadian Aquatic Biomonitoring Network)

CABIN is a collaborative program developed and maintained byEnvironment Canada to establish a network of reference sitesavailable to all users interested in assessing the biologicalhealth of fresh water in Canada. This program monitors the

benthic macroinvertebrates through all Canada. The initialfocus of the CABIN network is the use of benthic invertebratecommunities in ecological assessment.

The contributors of CABIN are: National Water Reserch

Institute, Canadian Rivers Institute, Acadia University,Geoconnexions and EMAN.


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CABIN Protocol

The layout of the manual attempts to follow the logical progressionand sequence of events in designing, collecting, analysing, andinterpreting a project. There are 4 major sections:

1. Data Collection: where there is some superficial discussionabout study design, but the main focus is the site selection andon site procedures and protocols. Kick-net sampling

2. Laboratory Processing: which describe the actual sequence ofprocesses for handling samples, sorting invertebrate samplesand data management and data entry.

3. Taxonomy: which provides an identification key to the familylevel for the organisms.

4. Data Interpretation: where some recommended summarydescriptors


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CABIN Protocol DATA INTERPRETATION

Taxonomic richness

EPT richness: This measures the total number of Mayflies(Ephemeroptera), Stoneflies (Plecoptera), and Caddisflies(Trichoptera) which are typically most sensitive to habitatdisturbance.Shannon-Wiener diversityEquitability: This expresses how evenly the individuals are

distributed among the different species, and is often termedevennessDominance: Dominance is the inverse of equitability, andshows the pattern of dominance across the community


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CABIN Protocol DATA INTERPRETATION

Hilsenhoff family biotic index: the similarity between thereference sites and the test sites. This can be expressed as percentsimilarity:

% Similarity = (reference HBI/test HBI) x 100

Bray-Curtis similarity: The B-C index measures the percentage ofdifference between sites.


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2. EMAN (Ecological Monitoring and Assessment Network)

It is made up of linked organizations and individuals involved inecological monitoring in Canada to better detect, describe, andreport on ecosystem changes. The network is a cooperative

partnership of federal, provincial and municipal governments,academic institutions, aboriginal communities andorganizations, industry, environmental non-governmentorganizations, volunteer community groups, elementary andsecondary schools and other groups/individuals involved in

ecological monitoring.

Environment Canada EMAN-CO


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EMAN Protocols

1. Benthic macroinvertebrates- Data collection: Lakes and rivers- Laboratory processing: It explains the methods that can

be used to separate the macroinvertebrates in order to identifythem

- Data interpretation:- Pilot/reconnaissance studies: these studies can be

used to reveal what organisms occur, their approximate

densities, and their spatial aggregations, all essential elementsin the design of a full-scale program.

- Population/community characteristics:- Detection of differences- Rapid assessment approaches (RAAs). Biotic indices

and scoring systems


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EMAN Protocols

2. Parasites of fishes- Data collection: the samples will be the host organisms of

the parasites.- Laboratory processing: Method used to identify allparasites that can be found in the host organisms: eyes, muscles

- Data interpretation:- prevalence, mean abundance, and mean intensity- There are numerous measures of diversity used in

parasitology, including species richness, the Shannon-WienerIndex, SimpsonsIndex, Berger-Parker Index, and Brillouin Index.

- statistically determine whether parasite populationsor communities differ from one site to another, or from one timeperiod to another.


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EMAN Protocols

3. Phytoplankton- Data collection: Phytoplankton has to be sampled in

lakes. This protocol allows to type of sampling: quantitativeand qualitative.

- Laboratory processing: It is necessary to either identifyall the specimens or identify and count all of them, dependingon the type of sample which has been taken.

- Data interpretation:- Phytoplankton data need to be summarized and

plotted to enable seasonal, annual, and long-term analysis.- Graphics can be done, in order to interpret

better the results.- species richness, a species diversity index, or a

similarity index: Simpson's Diversity Index for phytoplankton

and Percent similarity analysis are recommended.


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EMAN Protocols

4. Zooplankton- Data collection: site description, sampling frequency,

environmental factors and sampling procedures for the

different organisms: crustacea, macrozooplankton and rotifera.- Laboratory processing: A number of methods have been

developed to subsample zooplankton collections. The easiestapproach is to remove quantitative subsamples from fullymixed samples using a wide-bore pipette.

- Data interpretation: In this case, the methods whichcan be used to interpret the results are justrecommendations:

- Comparisons of abundances- Univariate community measures

- Multivariate methods


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EMAN Protocols

5. Ontario Benthos Biomonitoring Network Protocol Manual


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EMAN Protocols

5. Ontario Benthos Biomonitoring Network Protocol Manual

Identification to the coarse 27 group level is sufficient for OBBN

participation.


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EMAN Protocols

5. Ontario Benthos Biomonitoring Network Protocol ManualAssessing biological condition

1. Summarize biological condition using a set of metrics: it is

recommended using a large set of metrics in order to contribute asmuch information as possible to assessments. Well known metrics suchas taxonomic richness, percent oligochaeta, percent EPT, percentChironomidae, percent Insecta, and percent dominant taxa, bioticindices multivariate summaries, and various proportional indices andsome familiarity with advanced statistical methods.

2. Predict a test site to a reference group using niche variables3. Use the reference site group to establish the normal range of

biological condition to be expected for a test site.4. Test the hypothesis that the test site falls within the normal

range:


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3. CAISIN

The Canadian Aquatic Invasive Species Network is a

national league of specialists created to examine

and identify existing invasions with the goal to

predict and prevent new aquatic invasive species

from harming Canadasaquatic ecosystems.


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1. LEGISLATIVE FRAMEWORK

The Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement (GLWQA), first signedin 1972 and renewed in 1978, expresses the commitment ofCanada and the United States to restore and maintain thechemical, physical and biological integrity of the Great LakesBasin Ecosystem and includes a number of objectives andguidelines to achieve these goals.


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2. GREAT LAKES MONITORING AND GAP ANALYSIS

It is the first attempt to develop a comprehensive binational inventoryof monitoring programs in the Great Lakes basin and evaluate currentlevels of monitoring efforts against regional monitoring needs

In total, information describing more than 600 monitoring programs iscontained in the Great Lakes Monitoring Inventory.

521 programs were reported for the U.S. portion of theGreat Lakes basin123 programs reported for the Canadian portion of thebasin


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2.1. Great Lakes Toxics BiomonitoringLong-term monitoring of contaminant levels in mussels, zebra mussels,juvenile fish, and selected sport fish is undertaken to track levels of

toxic contaminants (i.e. persistent, bioaccumulative substances)through time across the Great Lakes.

2.2. Great Lakes Water Intake BiomonitoringWater intake biomonitoring is undertaken to identify long term trendsin nutrient status using year-round (weekly-monthly) nutrient

concentrations and phytoplankton biomass as indicators. It mayprovide an indication of effects from a variety of stressors not activelymonitored in the aquatic environment


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2.3. Juvenile fish monitoringTrace organics such as PCBs and organochlorine pesticides (e.g. DDT,lindane, chlordane) are of concern due to their persistence and their

potential to bioaccumulate through the food web into top predatorfish and subsequently into fish-eating birds and mammals. For thisreason, analysis of biological tissue is a useful means of augmentingwater and sediment sample analysis.


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2.4. Great lakes marsh monitoring programThis program is carried out by a network of dedicated "CitizenScientist" volunteer surveyors. The MMP functions to provide long-termmonitoring of marsh-dependent bird and anuran (frog and toad)

species in marsh habitats throughout the Great Lakes basin. Datacollected by MMP volunteers is used to determine long-term trends inspecies diversity, occurrence and abundance, and to directly informand guide conservation, restoration and management programs formarshes and their bird and amphibian inhabitants. This program isfocused on wetlands.


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-General monitoring is well developed in Canada

- Biological monitoring could be more used because

it would provide more complete data

- Canada is a country with an important environment

awareness


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THANK YOU

Documents

Biological Monitoring in Canada