The Application of a Macroinvertebrate Indicator in Afrotropical Regions for Pesticide Pollution.

Wynand Malherbe,Johan H J Van Vuren,Victor Wepener

doi:10.1155/2018/2581930

Wynand Malherbe, Johan H J Van Vuren + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1155/2018/2581930

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Abstract

Many biotic integrity indices are not able to isolate community effects due to pesticide exposure as the communities also respond to other anthropogenic and natural stressors. A macroinvertebrate trait bioindicator system that is pesticide specific was therefore developed to overcome these challenges. This system, called SPEAR (SPEcies At Risk), was applied in South Africa as an indicator to link known pesticide catchment usage to changes in the macroinvertebrate community, especially when analytical methods are inconclusive. In addition, the SPEARsalinity index within the SPEAR suite of tools was also evaluated for its effectiveness in South Africa. The results indicated that all of the sites have either been exposed to the same pesticide pressure or not been exposed to pesticides as the SPEAR results were similar when compared to the pesticide intensity. The interaction with other factors like nutrients or salinity was likely a factor that confounded the SPEARpesticides indicator.

Highlights

Chemical monitoring of aquatic ecosystems is often insufficient to determine quality as it does not take into account higher level effects on biota, in-stream speciation of chemicals, interactions with other physical impacts, and variations due to longitude and time [1]
One of these approaches is the SPEcies At Risk (SPEAR) system that was developed as a bioindicator system making use of macroinvertebrate traits that are pesticide specific to link pesticide exposure to macroinvertebrate community responses [10, 14]
Since South Africa has a similar climate range to Australia, the data collected during this study were subjected to both the European and Australian trait databases

Summary

Introduction

Chemical monitoring of aquatic ecosystems is often insufficient to determine quality as it does not take into account higher level effects on biota, in-stream speciation of chemicals, interactions with other physical impacts, and variations due to longitude and time [1]. Studies on organic contaminants [8, 9], pesticides [10], salinity [11], and more recently metals [12, 13] have shown the value of using biological traits in ecosystem assessment. One of these approaches is the SPEcies At Risk (SPEAR) system that was developed as a bioindicator system making use of macroinvertebrate traits that are pesticide specific to link pesticide exposure to macroinvertebrate community responses [10, 14]

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