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Development of a multimetric index based on benthic macroinvertebrates for the assessment of urban stream health in Jinan City, China

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Abstract

Assessment of the health of urban streams is an important theoretical and practical topic, which is related to the impacts of physiochemical processes, hydrological modifications, and the biological community. However, previous assessments of the urban water quality were predominantly conducted by measuring physical and chemical factors rather than biological monitoring. The purpose of this study was to develop an urban stream multimetric index (USMI) based on benthic macroinvertebrates to assess the health of aquatic ecosystem in Jinan City. Two hundred and eighty-eight samples were collected during two consecutive years (2014–2015) from 48 sites located within the city. Metrics related to the benthic macroinvertebrate richness, diversity, composition and abundance, and functional feeding groups were selected by using box-plots and the Kruskal-Wallis test. The final index derived from selected metrics was divided into five river quality classes (excellent, good, moderate, poor, and bad). A validation procedure using box-plots and the non-parametric Mann-Whitney U test showed that the USMI was useful to assess the health of urban streams.

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Acknowledgements

This study is supported by the key project titled “Science and technology program of aquatic civilization” (no.: SSTWMZCJH-SD02), which was responsible by the Institute of Water Resources, Shandong Province, and financed by the Financial Department of Shandong Province, and a project titled “Freshwater ecoregions in Jinan City,” which was principal by the Hydrology Bureau of Shandong Province. The authors also thank the GlobeLand30 to support the land use data for this study.

This study was supported as part of the main project titled Science and technology program of aquatic civilization (no. SSTWMZCJH-SD02), which was undertaken by the Institute of Water Resources, Shandong Province, and financed by the Financial Department of Shandong Province, and a project titled Freshwater ecoregions in Jinan City which was undertaken by the Hydrology Bureau of Shandong Province. The authors also thank the National Geomatics Center of China for providing the land use data for this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Water Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China

    Linfei Liu & Zongxue Xu

  2. Beijing Key Laboratory of Urban Hydrological Cycle and Sponge City Technology, Beijing, 100875, China

    Linfei Liu & Zongxue Xu

  3. College of Fisheries and Life Science, Dalian Ocean University, Dalian, 116023, China

    Xuwang Yin

  4. Water Resources Research Institute of Shandong Province, Jinan, 250013, China

    Fulin Li

  5. Jinan Survey Bureau of Hydrology and Water Resources, Jinan, 250013, China

    Tongwen Dou

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  1. Linfei Liu
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Correspondence to Zongxue Xu.

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Liu, L., Xu, Z., Yin, X. et al. Development of a multimetric index based on benthic macroinvertebrates for the assessment of urban stream health in Jinan City, China. Environ Monit Assess 189, 205 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-017-5920-8

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