Biomonitoring Quiz

Why use macroinvertebrates for biomonitoring?

• They are abundant

• They die at various levels of pollution

• They indicate long term effects of pollution

• They are difficult to identity

Group 1 organisms are

• Intolerant of pollution

• Tolerant of pollution

• Somewhat tolerant of pollution

• Not useful for biomonitoring

If no group 1 organisms are found in a stream

• The stream has pollution levels below their tolerance

• The stream has pollution levels equal to their tolerance

• The stream has pollution levels above their tolerance

• The pollution level of the stream cannot be determined

Why is biomonitoring useful?

• It is inexpensive

• It if often faster than lab tests

• It is more accurate than lab tests

• It is is easy to train anyone to do

• It gives snapshots of a water bodies health

Why use fish for biomonitoring?

• They indicate pollution levels across the food chain

• They are often the first organisms to die if there's pollution

• They indicate pollution levels over a wide geographic range

• they indicate pollution levels over a long period of time (months to years)

A stream with a biotic index of 2 is

• not polluted

• moderately polluted

• pollution level can not be determined

• severely polluted

This picture illustrates

• bioaccumulation

• biomagnification

• biotoxins

• biomonitoring

biomonitoring can indicate

• if remediation is needed

• where remediation is working

• changes in the chemical makeup of a stream

• changes in temperature or acidity of a stream

If only group 3 organisms are present it indicates

• severely polluted water

• moderately polluted water

• unpolluted water

• pollution levels cannot be determined

When calculating the biotic index, what is most important?

• the number of individual organisms in group 1 and 2

• the number of individual organisms in group 3

• the number of species in group 3

• the number of species from group 1 and 2