HR: 13:30h
AN: NB43A-01    [Abstracts]
TI: Incorporating Hypothesis Testing and Biologically Meaningful Effect Sizes into Bioassessments Using Test Site Analysis (TSA)
AU: * Bowman, M F
EM: michelle.bowman@ene.gov.on.ca
AF: Department of Zoology, University of Toronto, 25 Harbord St., Toronto, ON M5S 3G5 Canada
AU: * Bowman, M F
EM: michelle.bowman@ene.gov.on.ca
AF: Dorset Environmental Science Centre, Ontario Ministry of Environment, 1026 Bellwood Acres Road, P.O. Box 39, Dorset, ON P0A 1E0 Canada
AU: Somers, K M
EM: keith.somers@ene.gov.on.ca
AF: Department of Zoology, University of Toronto, 25 Harbord St., Toronto, ON M5S 3G5 Canada
AU: Somers, K M
EM: keith.somers@ene.gov.on.ca
AF: Dorset Environmental Science Centre, Ontario Ministry of Environment, 1026 Bellwood Acres Road, P.O. Box 39, Dorset, ON P0A 1E0 Canada
AU: Reid, R A
EM: ron.reid@ene.gov.on.ca
AF: Dorset Environmental Science Centre, Ontario Ministry of Environment, 1026 Bellwood Acres Road, P.O. Box 39, Dorset, ON P0A 1E0 Canada
AB: We use various benthic macroinvertebrate (BMI) datasets to illustrate the utility of a novel test site analysis (TSA) method. As in other approaches, the degree and nature of anthropogenic impairments are identified by comparing communities in potentially impacted test sites to communities in minimally impacted reference sites. The first step in TSA is to use traditional (e.g., % chironomids) and, or multivariate (e.g., ordination axes scores) metrics to describe the communities. Using all metrics simultaneously (i.e., overall biological distance), TSA calculations provide a single probability that a test community is different from reference communities. Any redundancies among metrics are accounted for in the biological distance calculation. If a test community is not statistically different from reference, it is further categorized as in reference condition or potentially impaired (i.e., more data required). If a test community is statistically impaired, the metric(s) important in distinguishing the test community from reference condition are identified. All TSA calculations can easily be done using an Excel® spreadsheet. Thus, our use of a variety of summary metrics to obtain a single statistical test of significance within the context of the reference-condition approach provides a simple and unambiguous framework for evaluating the biological condition of test sites.
DE: 9810 New fields (not classifiable under other headings)
SC: North American Benthological Society [NB]
MN: 2005 Joint Assembly