Links between ecotoxicology biomonitoring and water chemistry in the integration of water quality into environmental flow assessments.

Abstract

Aquatic organisms have physico-chemical as well as flow habitat requirements. There are three main kinds of data which are useful in quantifying these requirements: chemical data which describe in-stream chemical conditions; ecotoxicity data which describe the tolerances of organisms and their in-stream responses to changing chemical concentrations; and biomonitoring data which describe the distribution and composition of communities. However, it is only by linking these data that organism requirements can be adequately elucidated and translated into resource quality objectives. This paper describes the methods for linking these data and their application in the integration of water quality into environmental flow assessments and the assessment of the water quality Reserve. A case study is presented to demonstrate the methodology