Abstract
Abstract Integrity of the fish community in a small Illinois stream was assessed from 1978 to 1980 with two indices, the index of biotic integrity (IBI) and the Shannon-Wiener diversity index (H'). The IBI identified known degradation in water quality and habitat structure more reliably than did H'. Assessments of site quality with IBI were consistent over the three sample years but varied according to H'. Omission of young-of-year fishes reduced scores for both indices, but did not affect assessment performance for IBI as much as for H'. The breadth of information incorporated into IBI (e.g., species composition, trophic habits) seems to make it more generally useful in detecting degradation than H'.
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