The elaboration of indices to assess biological water quality. A case study

Abstract

Here we tested the application of a nodal analysis for the elaboration of biotic indices for particular stressing conditions. The work was carried out in an intermittent Mediterranean stream where superficial flow was absent during summer. The river was perturbed by an effluent with high pH, sulphates, nitrates and conductivity. "Summer" and "winter" samples were treated separately. We first identified groups of sites differing in taxonomical composition by cluster analysis. Then we tested whether groups of sites also differed in their abiotic characteristics. In the following step, groups of cooccurring taxa were also identified by cluster analysis. The indicator value of a taxa group was measured by fidelity measurements for site groups. Indicator taxa were incorporated in a water quality table. The biotic index in the water quality table clearly discriminated impacted from reference sites in the two following years and was correlated with the first axis of a correspondence analysis biplot which also discriminated impacted from clean sites. We suggest that nodal analysis can be a reliable technique for the identification of bioindicators and the elaboration of biotic indices.