Synthesis of a national multi-metric diatom index
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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.