A preliminary evaluation of the behaviour of the biomap water quality index
1999
Barton, D.R. | Kilgour, B.W.
Before any protocol can be recommended for widespread use in assessing water quality with benthic macroinvertebrates, its performance must be thoroughly evaluated. A new procedure, called BioMAP, has been adopted by several agencies in southern Ontario, including several Conservation Authorities and the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, but has not been scientifically evaluated or subjected to peer review. According to the BioMAP protocol, the decision about whether or not a site is impaired is based on a single index score. We calculated scores for two sets of samples from southern Ontario to assess the behavior of the BioMAP index. Theoretically, BioMAP scores should vary systematically with stream size, but they did not. There was little relationship between BioMAP score and concentrations of suspended solids. BioMAP scores were weakly correlated with maximum water temperature, and were influenced by the texture of the streambed at the sampling site. It is unclear precisely what is indicated by BioMAP index.
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