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ABSTRACT Using Georgia Adopt-A-Stream's (AAS) volunteer macroinvertebrate monitoring protocol, we examined how several streams' macroinvertebrate communities differed with the land usage surrounding each stream reach. Our study sites included various [...]

Current methods of ecological health assessment of lakes within the United States are not adequate for meeting the requirements of the 1972 Clean Water Act (CWA) and assessing the condition of aquatic biota. Impairment status of lakes has typically been measured and classified by individual slates via eutrophication standards or through the use of total maximum daily load (TMDL) protocols. These measurements often fail to account for effects of anthropogenic disturbances on aquatic biota that are not directly reflected by chemical and physical proxies of environmental condition. The index of biotic integrity (IBI) is a potentially effective ecological health assessment method that is meant to integrate ecological, functional, and structural aspects of aquatic systems. Furthermore, the IBI is meant to meet the requirements of the CWA by directly examining biological components of an ecosystem. The adaptation of the IBI for use in lake monitoring has increased in recent years as managers address the need to directly examine the biota of aquatic systems. This review is meant to examine research related to the development of IBIs in lacustrine environments. Obstacles and shortcomings to index development that are commonly encountered are discussed within the review. Attention is also given to robust methods and lessons learned from inadequate methods. The review will facilitate use of the IBI for lake monitoring efforts with the overall goal of improving water resource management. Key words: Clean Water Act, biological indicators, index of biotic integrity, lake monitoring, metric development. Resume : Les methodes actuelles pour l'evaluation de la sante ecologique des lacs aux Etats-Unis ne rencontrent pas les exigences du Clean Water Act (CWA) de 1972 pour l'evaluation de la condition des biotopes aquatiques. Typiquement, on a evalue et classifie l'etat d'alteration des lacs etat par etat, via les standards d'eutrophisation on en utilisant les protocols de charge quotidienne totale maximum (TMLD). Souvent ces mesures n'arrivent pas a prendre en compte les effets des perturbations anthropogenes sur les biotopes aquatiques qui ne se traduisent pas directement dans les indicateurs chimiques et physiques des conditions environnementales. L'index de l'lntegrite Biologique (IBI) constitue une methode efficace potentielle pour evaluer la sante ecologique, destinee a integrer les aspects ecologiques, fonctionnels et structuraux des ecosystemes aquatiques. De plus, l'IBI arrive a rencontrer les exigences du CWA en examinant directement les composantes biologiques d'un ecosysteme. L'adaptation de l'IBI pour son utilisation dans le suivi des lacs a augmente au cours des recentes annees, a mesure que les amenagistes repondent au besoin d'examiner directement les biotopes des systemes aquatiques. Cetle revue vise a examiner les recherches reliees au developpement de l'IBI pour les milieux lacustres. Les auteurs disculenl les obstacles et imperfections frequemmenl rencontres dans le developpement de cet index. On accorde egalement beaucoup d'attention aux methodes robustes et aux lecons lirees des methodes inadequales. Ce travail devrait faciliter l'utilisation de l'TB1 dans les efforts de suivi des lacs ayant comme objectif, 1'amelioration de l'amenagement des ressources aquatiques. Mois-cles : Clean Water Act, indicateurs biologiques, index d'integrite biologique, suivi ecologique des lacs, developpement de mesures, [Traduit par la Redaction], Introduction The passage of the 1972 Clean Water Act (CWA) by the United States Congress established a legal mandate for the maintenance of ecosystem health with the single objective to [...]

The management of Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.) populations, which are spatially distributed across thousands of waterways in coastal British Columbia, Canada, presents considerable challenges to resource managers. We evaluated the efficacy of salmon management by Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) over the past 55 years in two key areas: (i) the achievement of internally generated target escapement levels and (ii) escapement monitoring. We show that less than 4% of monitored streams (n = 7 of 215), which represent a small fraction of all salmon-bearing waterways (n = 2592), have consistently met escapement targets since 1950. During this same period, the number of streams monitored by DFO has simultaneously decreased. Further, current monitoring efforts fall short of encompassing the range of salmon diversity identified within recently designated conservation units. Importantly, we found that this erosion of monitoring effort has been biased towards dropping smaller runs that failed to meet target escapements in the previous decade. We suggest that such increasingly selective monitoring is presenting a progressively more biased evaluation of population health. In addition to fostering a 'shifting baseline' syndrome, we conclude that these changes to monitoring can not provide data required for precautionary harvest management under the high exploitation levels that these runs experience. La gestion des populations de saumons du Pacifique (Oncorhynchus spp.), qui sont reparties spatialement dans des milliers de cours d'eau sur la cote de la Colombie-Britannique, presente des defis importants aux gestionnaires des ressources. Nous evaluons l'efficacite de la gestion des saumons faite par Peches et Oceans Canada (DFO) au cours des 55 dernieres annees dans deux domaines importants: (i) l'atteinte des cibles d'echappement par les processus intrinseques et (ii) la surveillance de l'echappement. Nous montrons que moins de 4 % des cours d'eau suivis (n = 7 de 215), qui representent une petite fraction des cours d'eau a saumons (n = 2592), ont regulierement atteint leurs cibles d'echappement depuis 1950. Durant la meme periode, le nombre de cours d'eau suivis par DFO a simultanement decru. De plus, les efforts de surveillance actuels n'arrivent pas a couvrir l'etendue de la diversite des saumons identifiee au sein des unites de conservation recemment definies. Ce qui est important de noter, c'est que cette erosion de l'effort de surveillance a frappe de facon disproportionnee les petits groupes de montaison qui n'ont pas reussi a atteindre leurs cibles d'echappement au cours de la derniere decennie. Nous croyons que cette surveillance de plus en plus selective fournit une evaluation toujours plus faussee de la sante des populations. En plus de produire un syndrome de << donnees de base changeantes >>, ces modifications dans la surveillance ne permettent pas d'obtenir les donnees necessaires pour une gestion prudente des recoltes dans les conditions de forte exploitation que connaissent ces groupes de montaison. [Traduit par la Redaction], Introduction Salmon management presents complex biological, economic, and political challenges (Wright 1981; Hilborn and Luedke 1987). In British Columbia (BC), resource managers rely heavily on stock assessment programs to guide [...]

ISO 14001, released in 1996, provides the basic framework for the establishment of an Environmental Management System (EMS) that can be audited and certified. ISO is not only an acronym for the International Organization for Standardization, but is also a term that refers to its Greek meaning: `equal.' The main rationale for the creation of ISO 14001 was that its worldwide acceptance should facilitate international trade by harmonizing otherwise diffuse environmental management standards and by providing an internationally accepted blueprint for sustainable development, pollution prevention, and compliance assurance. However, the implementation of ISO 14001 varies significantly across the globe. A significant number of firms have adopted ISO 14001 in Western Europe and Asia. In December 1999, 52% of the 14,106 ISO 14001 certified facilities were located in Western Europe and 36% in Asia. On the contrary, very few American companies have adopted this voluntary standard. U.S. certified facilities accounted for only 4.5% of the total of ISO 14001 certified facilities in the world in December 1999. The U.S. institutional environment seems acting as a deterrent to ISO 14000 adoption as U.S. companies are fearful of the certification process which lays their performance open to public scrutiny. The opposite is true in Europe, where governments have encouraged the adoption of environmental management standards by setting up a trusted certification system and providing technical assistance to potential adopters. This paper offers a conceptual framework to analyze this variation in adoption rates. It is proposed that the regulatory, normative and cognitive aspects of a country's institutional environment greatly impact the costs and potential benefits of ISO 14001 adoption and therefore explain the differences in adoption across countries. The analysis is supported by data collected from a phone questionnaire to 140 firms in Europe and a questionnaire mailed to 152 firms in the U.S.

The policy council of EPA's Environmental Monitoring Management Council has plans to apply for the whole agency, the performance-based measurement system (PBMS) procedure for its environmental monitoring. The plan to adopt PBMS is caused by prevalence of several overlapping methods and the failure of its previous plan to integrate these methods. However, some states are concerned that the PBMS method would only complicate the auditor's job.

Industries are anticipating that the International Organization of Standardization's new series of voluntary environmental management standards will pave the way for self-regulation. The new set of standards called ISO 14000 aims to make it easier for companies to monitor and measure their own environmental performance. However, US regulators are adopting a cautious stance regarding ISO 14000 and are awaiting the results of regulatory pilot projects that are using the standards.

The LGC was unable to develop new natural-matrix reference materials for monitoring environmental radioactivity, even though it identified four potential candidates. LGC is the former UK Laboratory of the Government Chemist, but is now privately owned.