title: Development of a multimetric index based on benthic macroinvertebrates for the assessment of urban stream health in Jinan City, China.
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.
authors.affiliation: College of Water Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China.|Beijing Key Laboratory of Urban Hydrological Cycle and Sponge City Technology, Beijing, 100875, China.
authors.forename: Linfei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: College of Water Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China. zongxuexu@vip.sina.com.|Beijing Key Laboratory of Urban Hydrological Cycle and Sponge City Technology, Beijing, 100875, China. zongxuexu@vip.sina.com.
authors.forename: Zongxue
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: College of Fisheries and Life Science, Dalian Ocean University, Dalian, 116023, China.
authors.forename: Xuwang
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Yin
authors.affiliation: Water Resources Research Institute of Shandong Province, Jinan, 250013, China.
authors.forename: Fulin
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Jinan Survey Bureau of Hydrology and Water Resources, Jinan, 250013, China.
authors.forename: Tongwen
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Dou
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D044822:Biodiversity; D002681:China; D002947:Cities; D017753:Ecosystem; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D062070:Hydrology; D007448:Invertebrates / Q000254:growth & development*; D045483:Rivers / Q000737:chemistry*; D014507:Urbanization; D060753:Water Quality
keywords: Aquatic ecosystem; Benthic macroinvertebrates; Bioassessment; Multimetric index; Urban