Wetland Bioassessment Projects


United States Environmental Protection Agency	Office of Water Office of Wetlands, Oceans and Watersheds (4502-F)	EPA843-F-98-001d July 1998

Wetland Bioassessment Fact Sheet 4

Below is a list of some wetland biological assessment projects conducted by members of the Biological Assessment of Wetlands Workgroup (BAWWG) (See Fact Sheet 3) in wetlands. In general, individual BAWWG members are still in the preliminary stages of identifying and testing potential metrics, particularly for birds, amphibians, plants, and algae. Most current research is being conducted on macroinvertebrates and vascular plants in depressional wetlands with emergent and submerged vegetation. Further research is needed in other wetland types, especially in wetlands that have saturated soils but lack standing water for most of the year.

Agency	Analytical Methods	Species Assemblages	Project Purpose	Wetland Type	Stressors Affecting Wetlands
Minnesota	Index of Biological Integrity (IBI) (See Fact Sheet 5)	Vascular Plants Macroinvertebrates Amphibians	Water quality standards	Depressional semipermanent with emergent vegetation	Agriculture Storm water runoff
Montana	Attempting to develop bioassessment protocols using both multimetric and multivariate approaches	Macroinvertebrates Algae (diatoms) Vascular Plants	Water quality standards	Depressional Riparian/fen Closed basins Open lakes	Agriculture Mining Others
Minnesota	Floristic Quality Assessment Index (FQAI) for vascular plants IBIs for both amphibians and macroinvertebrates	Vascular Plants Macroinvertebrates Amphibians	Water quality standards	Depressional Riparian	Agriculture Development Others
North Dakota	IBI	Macroinvertebrates Algae Vascular Plants	Water quality standards	Depressional (prairie potholes)	Agriculture
Patuxent Wildlife Research Center(USGS and NRCS)	Investigating use of each assemblage for bioassessments	Macroinvertebrates Vascular Plants Birds Fish Amphibians	Evaluating performance of wetland restoration	Depressional (Delmarva Bays) in various stages of succession	Restored wetlands on agricultural land compared to minimally disturbed wetlands
U.S. EPA Duluth Lab	IBI	Macroinvertebrates Vascular Plants Algae	Water quality standards	Depressional (prairie potholes)	Agriculture
U.S. EPA Corvallis Lab	Analyzing survey design and reporting methods	N/A	Evaluating wetland program effectiveness	Various wetlands located in mid-Atlantic region	Mixed land use
USGS Northern Prairie Science Center	Has collected some macroinvertebrate data in conjunction with HGM* project	Macroinvertebrates	Supplementing HGM* project	Depressional (prairie potholes)	Agriculture Others

* Hydrogeomorphic approach (HGM) is a functional assessment method.

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