Synthesis of a national multi-metric diatom index

Several national diatom datasets from EPA and USGS will be synthesized to develop multi-metric indices of biological condition along urban and agricultural gradients. Diatom traits tables will be used to develop the multi-metric indices, including traits such as saprobity, pollution tolerance, trophic status, nitrogen fixation, size, and motility. Some of these traits are expected to differ more than others between original and harmonized data because traits are expressed at different taxonomic levels (e.g., species vs. genus) and harmonization aimed to resolve fine-level differences in taxonomy.

Impact/Purpose

Several national diatom datasets from EPA and USGS will be synthesized to develop multi-metric indices of biological condition along urban and agricultural gradients. Sylvia Lee will provide a progress update for Office of Water, Office of Wetlands, Oceans and Watersheds, National Aquatic Resource Surveys program on harmonizing taxonomy in stream diatom data and how this may influence metrics.

Citation

Spaulding, S., M. Tyree, N. Schulte, S. Lee, D. Carlisle, R. Mitchell, AND A. Pollard. Synthesis of a national multi-metric diatom index. Metrics Workshop, Boulder, CO, January 08 - 11, 2019.