The tragedy of the threshold: revising perceptions for aquatic conservation

Irvine, Kenneth

doi:10.1002/aqc.2307

Cited by 10 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…This finding suggests that the wet meadow IBI is able to detect changes in quality across a continuum of environmental stress. It is imperative that monitoring tools are able to detect fine‐scale changes in biological condition so that human disturbances can be minimized or halted before cumulative effects cause irreversible damages to an ecosystem (Irvine, ). In addition, agreement between IBI scores in wet and dry years (Spearman's and Wilcoxon tests) added support to the finding that the wet meadow IBI is indeed an effective tool for monitoring more permanent marshes in the northern prairies.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Knowing which wetlands are of the highest quality will promote their conservation and protection. High quality sites, such as those in protected areas, are necessary for the maintenance of biodiversity and ecological health, as refugia for species from a more widely degraded landscape, and as biological sources of dispersal and colonization (Irvine, ). Furthermore, the simple metrics in the wet meadow IBI can help convey a guiding image of a healthy wetland (e.g.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A plant‐based index of biological integrity in permanent marsh wetlands yields consistent scores in dry and wet years

Wilson

Bayley

Rooney

2013

Aquatic Conservation

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ABSTRACT1. Plant-based assessments can contribute to wetland conservation and management by providing a standardized method to monitor biological communities in relation to human activity. One major challenge, however, is that their measurements must be fairly insensitive to temporal variation in community composition, which can be difficult since marsh plant communities are known to be influenced by natural climatic cycles.2. Variation in the scores for an index of biological integrity (IBI) was evaluated in relation to plant community changes that occurred between years with differing precipitation inputs throughout the growing season (dry: 240 mm in 2008, 198 mm in 2009; wet: 324 mm in 2010, 329 mm in 2011). Species composition and IBI scores were measured by sampling macrophytes in the centre of the wet meadow zone at 47 semi-permanent to permanent natural and constructed marshes.3. Non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMS) ordinations revealed that although plant community composition shifted between dry and wet years, IBI scores were sensitive to only 21% of the total inter-annual variation in species composition. The first NMS axis was positively correlated with IBI scores (r = 0.85) as well as several environmental parameters (r 2 > 0.2), including dissolved organic carbon, total nitrogen, potassium, shoreline slope, and salinity.4. The wet meadow IBI also yielded consistent scores between dry and wet years (Spearman's rho = 0.82; Wilcoxon z-score = 0.53, P-value = 0.60) and was able to distinguish a change in biological condition among sites against a backdrop of natural variation (F-test = 3.0, P < 0.001).5. These findings provide support for the continued use of plants as indicators of wetland condition in permanent northern prairie marshes, providing that the range in water levels is moderate.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A plant‐based index of biological integrity in permanent marsh wetlands yields consistent scores in dry and wet years

Wilson

Bayley

Rooney

2013

Aquatic Conservation

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“…Assessing changes in a river, lake, or other wetland against uncertain or contested baselines is technically and politically difficult (Hering et al, ; Moss, ). Even when applied within a systematic typology, establishing baseline or reference conditions is controversial, and subject to interpretations that can legitimize the lowering of ecological and conservation targets (Campbell, Gray, Hazen, & Shackeroff, ; Irvine, ; Lotze & Worm, ; Stoddard, Larsen, Hawkins, Johnson, & Norris, ). A lake that I am very familiar with illustrates this point.…”

Section: Ecological Assessment and Shifting Baseline Syndromementioning

confidence: 99%

Editorial: Aquatic conservation in the age of the Sustainable Development Goals

Irvine

2018

Aquatic Conservation

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“…For example, Emy Lough, with a median alkalinity concentration of 99 mg L (1 CaCO 3 is classed as moderate for the purpose of this analysis (mean concentration was 102 mg L (1 CaCO 3 ), but had a maximum concentration of 120 mg L (1 CaCO 3 . Classification of a given lake into one type for management purposes has garnered criticism as biological communities vary along a gradient of environmental change, rather than belonging to discrete groupings (Clapcott et al, 2011;Irvine, 2012). As can be seen in the Emy example, it is not only the biological communities that may vary either side of a group boundary.…”

Section: Depthmentioning

confidence: 99%

Predicting lake alkalinity and depth for classifying Irish lakes under the EU Water Framework Directive typology

Wynne¹,

Tierney²,

Donohue³

2016

Biology and Environment: Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy

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The EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) typology for Ireland groups lakes based on their altitude, alkalinity, water depth and area. Alkalinity and depth data are, however, lacking for many unmonitored lakes on the Irish WFD programme. In light of legislative requirements to categorise these lakes, we examined relationships between the alkalinity and depth of lakes and the hydrological, morphological and geological characteristics of their catchments. We used a decision-tree learning approach to categorise lakes into their predicted Irish WFD typology categories. We then tested our model predictions using data from an independent set of 62 lakes. Alkalinity type was predicted correctly 87% of the time, with greatest success of classification in the low alkalinity category. The most important variable for predicting water depth was the range of slope within 50m of the lake shore. However, lake depth category was predicted correctly only 54% of the time, and predictions were particularly poor for shallow lakes. This latter model is therefore not proposed for use in typology assignment for WFD purposes. Our predictions allowed WFD alkalinity category to be assigned for 790 lakes on the Irish WFD programme and provide insights into relationships between catchment hydrological, morphological and geological characteristics and in-lake conditions in Ireland.

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The tragedy of the threshold: revising perceptions for aquatic conservation

Cited by 10 publications

References 39 publications

A plant‐based index of biological integrity in permanent marsh wetlands yields consistent scores in dry and wet years

A plant‐based index of biological integrity in permanent marsh wetlands yields consistent scores in dry and wet years

Editorial: Aquatic conservation in the age of the Sustainable Development Goals

Predicting lake alkalinity and depth for classifying Irish lakes under the EU Water Framework Directive typology

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