Salt Belt Index (SBI): A biotic index for streams within the North American “salt belt,” with proposed baseline chloride thresholds

Abstract

Road salt (commonly NaCl, CaCl2, and MgCl2) is widely used in the northern United States as a deicing agent for roadways and other byways. Millions of tons of road salt are used annually in the United States, resulting in drastic increases in freshwater salinity. This study aims to determine the chloride optima and tolerance ranges of macroinvertebrates using publicly accessible stream monitoring data from the US EPA. We assigned taxa region-specific tolerance values, which we then used to calculate the Salt Belt Index (SBI). In addition to the SBI, we determined new, region-specific, chronic Cl− thresholds, determined using threshold indicator taxa analysis (TITAN). Using generalized linear models, we found the SBI was highly accurate at estimating chloride concentration (mg/L Cl−) across the salt belt states. Macroinvertebrate community richness exhibited a significant negative relationship with increasing chloride concentrations. Newly proposed chloride thresholds, based on the richness-chloride relationship, were far lower than current thresholds. The SBI was able to differentiate between Low-, Medium-, and High-Impact sites, grouped based on proposed chloride thresholds. Based on our findings, it is clear current salinity thresholds are too high, and management practices should factor in regional variability, taxon-specific physiology, and historical instream chemistry when implementing salinity thresholds.