Inferring community properties of benthic macroinvertebrates in streams using Shannon index and exergy

Abstract

Definition of ecological integrity based on community analysis has long been a critical issue in risk assessment for sustainable ecosystem management. In this work, two indices (i.e., Shannon index and exergy) were selected for the analysis of community properties of benthic macroinvertebrate community in streams in Korea. For this purpose, the means and variances of both indices were analyzed. The results found an extra scope of structural and functional properties in communities in response to environmental variabilities and anthropogenic disturbances. The combination of these two parameters (four indices) was feasible in identification of disturbance agents (e.g., industrial pollution or organic pollution) and specifying states of communities. The four-aforementioned parameters (means and variances of Shannon index and exergy) were further used as input data in a self-organizing map for the characterization of water quality. Our results suggested that Shannon index and exergy in combination could be utilized as a suitable reference system and would be an efficient tool for assessment of the health of aquatic ecosystems exposed to environmental disturbances.

Keywords

benthic macroinvertebrates / ecological integrity / anthropogenic pollution / self-organizing map

References

[1] Armitage P D, Moss D, Wright J F, Furse M T (1983). The performance of a new biological water quality score system based on macroinvertebrates over a wide range of unpolluted running-water sites. Water Res, 17(3): 333-347

[2] Bae M J, Li F, Verdonschot P F M, Park Y S (2013). Characterization of ecological exergy based on benthic macroinvertebrates in lotic ecosystems. Entropy, 15(6): 2319-2339

[3] Barbour M T, Gerritsen J, Griffith G E, Frydenborg R, McCarron E, White J S, Bastian M L (1996). A framework for biological criteria for Florida streams using benthic macroinvertebrates. J N Am Benthol Soc, 15(2): 185-211

[4] Bastianoni S, Facchini A, Susani L, Tiezzi E (2007). Emergy as a function of exergy. Energy, 32(7): 1158-1162

[5] Bendoricchio G, Jørgensen S E (1997). Exergy as goal function of ecosystems dynamic. Ecol Modell, 102(1): 5-15

[6] Benedetti-Cecchi L (2003). The importance of the variance around the mean effect size of ecological processes. Ecology, 84(9): 2335-2346

[7] Blocksom K A, Kurtenbach J P, Klemm D J, Fulk F A, Cormier S M (2002). Development and evaluation of the lake macroinvertebrate integrity index (LMII) for New Jersey lakes and reservoirs. Environ Monit Assess, 77(3): 311-333

[8] Chao A, Shen T J (2003). Nonparametric estimation of Shannon’s index of diversity when there are unseen species in sample. Environ Ecol Stat, 10(4): 429-443

[9] Chon T S (2011). Self-organizing maps applied to ecological sciences. Ecol Inform, 6(1): 50-61

[10] Chon T S, Qu X, Cho W S, Hwang H J, Tang H, Liu Y, Choi J H, Jung M, Chung B S, Lee H Y, Chung Y R, Koh S C (2013). Evaluation of stream ecosystem health and species association based on multi-taxa (benthic macroinvertebrates, algae, and microorganisms) patterning with different levels of pollution. Ecol Inform, 17: 58-72

[11] Dai J, Fath B, Chen B (2012). Constructing a network of the social-economic consumption system of China using extended exergy analysis. Renew Sustain Energy Rev, 16(7): 4796-4808

[12] Greene W H (2003). Econometric analysis (5th ed). New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc., 958pp

[13] Hellawell J M (1986). Biological Indicators of Freshwater Pollution and Environmental Management. London and New York: Elsevier Applied Science Publishers, 546 pp

[14] Herendeen R (1989). Energy intensity, residence time, exergy, and ascendency in dynamic ecosystems. Ecol Modell, 48(1-2): 19-44

[15] Hering D, Feld C, Moog O, Ofenböck T (2006). Cook book for the development of a multimetric index for biological condition of aquatic ecosystems: experiences from the European AQEM and STAR projects and related initiatives. Hydrobiologia, 566(1): 311-324

[16] Hilsenhoff W L (1987). An improved biotic index of organic stream pollution. Great Lakes Entomol, 20: 31-39

[17] Inouye B D (2005). The importance of the variance around the mean effect size of ecological processes. Ecology, 86(1): 262-265 (comment)

[18] Jørgensen S E (1992). The shifts in species composition and ecological modelling in hydrobiology. Hydrobiologia, 239(2): 115-129

[19] Jørgensen S E, Fath B D (2004). Application of thermodynamic principles in ecology. Ecol Complex, 1(4): 267-280

[20] Jørgensen S E, Ladegaard N, Debeljak M, Marques J C (2005a). Calculations of exergy for organisms. Ecol Modell, 185(2-4): 165-175

[21] Jørgensen S E, Nielsen S N, Mejer H (1995). Emergy, environ, exergy and ecological modelling. Ecol Modell, 77(2-3): 99-109 doi:10.1016/0304-3800(93)E0080-M

[22] Jørgensen S E, Nors Nielsen S (2007). Application of exergy as thermodynamic indicator in ecology. Energy, 32(5): 673-685

[23] Jørgensen S E, Odum H T, Brown M T (2004). Emergy and exergy stored in genetic information. Ecol Modell, 178(1-2): 11-16

[24] Jørgensen S E, Xu F L, Salas F, Marques J (2005b). Application of indicators for the assessment of ecosystem health. In: Jørgensen S E, Costanza R, Xu F L, eds. Handbook of Ecological Indicators for Assessment of Ecosystem Health. CRC Press, Florida, USA, 464pp

[25] Kohonen T (1988). Self-organization and Associative Memory. New York: Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg New York, Inc., 332pp

[26] Lenat D R (1988). Water quality assessment of streams using a qualitative collection method for benthic macroinvertebrates. J N Am Benthol Soc, 7(3): 222-233

[27] Li F, Bae M J, Kwon Y S, Chung N, Hwang S J, Park S J, Park H K, Kong D S, Park Y S (2013). Ecological exergy as an indicator of land-use impacts on functional guilds in river ecosystems. Ecol Modell, 252: 53-62

[28] Libralato S, Torricelli P, Pranovi F (2006). Exergy as ecosystem indicator: an application to the recovery process of marine benthic communities. Ecol Modell, 192(3-4): 571-585

[29] Link W A, Nichols J D (1994). On the importance of sampling variance to investigations of temporal variation in animal population size. Oikos, 69(3): 539-544

[30] Magurran A E (2004). Measuring Biological Diversity. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 264pp

[31] Marchi M, Jørgensen S E, Bécares E, Fernández-Aláez C, Rodríguez C, Fernández-Aláez M, Pulselli F M, Marchettini N, Bastianoni S (2012). Effects of eutrophication and exotic crayfish on health status of two Spanish lakes: a joint application of ecological indicators. Ecol Indic, 20: 92-100

[32] Mejer H, Jørgensen S E (1979). Energy and ecological buffer capacity. In: State-of-the-Art of Ecological Modelling. Proceeding of the conference on ecological modeling, Copenhagen, Denmark, 829-846

[33] Nayak T K (1985). On diversity measures based on entropy functions. Communication in Statistics—Theory and Methods, 141(1): 203-215

[34] Niemi G J, McDonald M E (2004). Application of ecological indicators. Annu Rev Ecol Evol Syst, 35(1): 89-111

[35] Odum H T (1988). Self-organization, transformity, and information. Science, 242(4882): 1132-1139

[36] Osborne L L, Davies R W, Linton K J (1980). Use of hierarchical diversity indices in lotic community analysis. J Appl Ecol, 17(3): 567-580

[37] Park Y S, Céréghino R, Compin A, Lek S (2003). Applications of artificial neural networks for patterning and predicting aquatic insect species richness in running waters. Ecol Modell, 160(3): 265-280

[38] Park Y S, Kwak I S, Chon T S, Kim J K, Jørgensen S E (2001). Implementation of artificial neural networks in patterning and prediction of exergy in response to temporal dynamics of benthic macroinvertebrate communities in streams. Ecol Modell, 146(1-3): 143-157

[39] Park Y S, Lek S, Scardi M, Verdonschot P F M, Jørgensen S E (2006a). Patterning exergy of benthic macroinvertebrate communities using self-organizing maps. Ecol Modell, 195(1-2): 105-113

[40] Park Y S, Song M Y, Park Y C, Oh K H, Cho E, Chon T S (2007). Community patterns of benthic macroinvertebrates collected on the national scale in Korea. Ecol Modell, 203(1-2): 26-33

[41] Park Y S, Tison J, Lek S, Giraudel J L, Coste M, Delmas F (2006b). Application of a self-organizing map to select representative species in multivariate analysis: a case study determining diatom distribution patterns across France. Ecol Inform, 1(3): 247-257

[42] Pielou E C (1977). Mathematical Ecology. New York-London-Sydney-Toronto: John Wiley and Sons, 385pp

[43] Pusceddu A, Danovaro R (2009). Exergy, ecosystem functioning and efficiency in a coastal lagoon: the role of auxiliary energy. Estuar Coast Shelf Sci, 84(2): 227-236

[44] Qu X D, Song M Y, Park Y S, Oh Y N, Chon T S (2008). Species abundance patterns of benthic macroinvertebrate communities in polluted streams. Ann Limnol-Int J Lim, 44(2): 119-133

[45] Ramezani H, Holm S, Allard A, Ståhl G (2010). Monitoring landscape metrics by point sampling: accuracy in estimating Shannon’s diversity and edge density. Environ Monit Assess, 164(1-4): 403-421PMID:19415517

[46] Reynoldson T B, Norris R H, Resh V H, Day K E, Rosenberg D M (1997). The reference condition: a comparison of multimetric and multivariate approaches to assess water-quality impairment using benthic macroinvertebrates. J N Am Benthol Soc, 16(4): 833-852

[47] Shannon C E (1948). A Mathematical theory of communication. Bell Syst Tech J, 27(3): 379-423

[48] Silow E A, Mokry A V (2010). Exergy as a tool for ecosystem health assessment. Entropy, 12(4): 902-925

[49] Silow E A, In-Hye O (2004). Aquatic ecosystem assessment using exergy. Ecol Indic, 4(3): 189-198

[50] Song M Y, Hwang H J, Kwak I S, Ji C W, Oh Y N, Youn B J, Chon T S (2007). Self-organizing mapping of benthic macroinvertebrate communities implemented to community assessment and water quality evaluation. Ecol Modell, 203(1-2): 18-25

[51] Straškraba M, Jørgensen S E, Patten B C (1999). Ecosystems emerging: 2. Dissipation. Ecol Modell, 117(1): 3-39

[52] Suzuki M, Sagehashi M, Sakoda A (2000). Modelling the structural dynamics of a shallow and eutrophic water ecosystem based on mesocosm observations. Ecol Modell, 128(2-3): 221-243

[53] Svirezhev Y M (2000). Thermodynamics and ecology. Ecol Modell, 132(1-2): 11-22

[54] Svirezhev Y M, Steinborn W H, Pomaz V L (2003). Exergy of solar radiation: global scale. Ecol Modell, 169(2-3): 339-346

[55] Tang H, Song M Y, Cho W S, Park Y S, Chon T S (2010). Species abundance distribution of benthic chironomids and other macroinvertebrates across different levels of pollution in streams. Ann Limnol-Int J Lim, 46(1): 53-66

[56] Ward J H Jr (1963). Hierarchical grouping to optimize an objective function. J Am Stat Assoc, 58(301): 236-244

[57] Xu F L, Jørgensen S E, Tao S (1999). Ecological indicators for assessing freshwater ecosystem health. Ecol Modell, 116(1): 77-106

[58] Xu F L, Wang J J, Chen B, Qin N, Wu W J, He W, Wang Y (2011). The variations of exergies and structural exergies along eutrophication gradients in Chinese and Italian lakes. Wetlands in China, 222(2): 337-350

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg