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Biological Integrity

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Biological integrity is a term that first appeared in the Water Pollution Control Act Amendments of 1972 (Pub. L. 92- 500), commonly known as the Clean Water Act. It is the sole objective of the Clean Water Act - to "restore and maintain the chemical, physical and biological integrity of the Nation's waters". The inclusion of this term was significant and resulted in much debate as to how to measure it. In 1975, EPA hosted a national forum on the "Integrity of Water" and invited well-known experts in several discplines (Ballentine and Guarraia 1977).

Two definitions of biological integrity were informally proposed at the forum. The first was by Cairns (1977) (10pp, 569K, About PDF) who felt that "biological integrity may be defined as the maintenance of community structure and function characteristic of a particular locale or deemed satisfactory to society." The second definition was proposed by Frey (1977) (18 pp., 1.1M, About PDF) who defined the integrity of water as "the capability of supporting and maintaining a balanced, integrated, adaptive community of organisms having a composition and diversity comparable to that of the natural habitats of the region".

Closer in their quest for a practical definition of biological integrity, in 1981 USEPA assembled a team of experts from within USEPA, academia, and the Fish and Wildlife Service to derive a functional definition and framework for describing biological integrity. The results of this effort included 1) a definition of biological integrity establishing base (reference) conditions within faunal regions (ecoregions), 2) methods comparing base-line conditions with impacted conditions to determine relative well-being, 3) the use of multiple sites to establish reference condition, and 4) the foundation of Karr's (1981) (7 pp., 193K, About PDF) Index of Biotic Integrity (Hughes et al. 1982) (12 pp., 525K, About PDF). They also suggested the use of fish assemblages "as the indicator of biointegrity".

Karr and Dudley (1981) (14 pp., 411K, About PDF) further defined biological integrity with the ecosystem perspective of Frey (1977) (18 pp., 1.1M, About PDF) as "the capability of supporting and maintaining a balanced, integrated, adaptive community of organisms having a species composition, diversity, and functional organization comparable to that of the natural habitat of the region." This is the practical working definition that is still in practice today. (DRAFT: Use of Biological Information to Better Define Designated Aquatic Life Uses in State and Tribal Water Quality Standards: Tiered Aquatic Life Uses – August 10, 2005)

The first complete effort to measure biological integrity as proposed by Hughes et al. (1982) (12 pp., 525K, About PDF) occurred as a result of the Ohio Stream Regionalization Project (SRP). This cooperative effort among Ohio EPA, USEPA's Environmental Research Laboratory in Corvallis, Oregon, and USEPA's Region 5 office in Chicago was conducted in 1983 and 1984 (Whittier et al. 1987) (73pp, 2.7M, About PDF). The SRP identified and delineated five ecoregions in Ohio and then focused on selecting least impacted reference watersheds and sites to determine the best attainable condition in those waters. Field sampling was conducted for over a year and included physical habitat, fish and macroinvertebrate assemblages, and chemical water quality in 109 streams. The fish assemblage was measured by several means including the Index of Biotic Integrity and the Index of Well-Being. The results were displayed in box plots and the attainable conditions were based upon the 50th percentiles of each of the attributes. Ohio EPA later refined the attainable conditions for aquatic life (warmwater biocriteria) based on a 25th percentile of the ecoregional reference site conditions of each measurable attribute related to drainage area. The success of this demonstration project led the State of Ohio to adopt numeric biological criteria in 1990 based on results of over 236 reference sites throughout the State.

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References

Ballentine, R.K. and L.J. Guarraia (editors). 1977. The Integrity of Water. Proceedings of a Symposium, March 10-12, 1975, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C.

Cairns, J. Jr. 1977. Quantification of biological integrity (PDF). Pages 171-187 in. R.K. Ballentine and L.J. Guarraia (editors). The Integrity of Water. Proceedings of a Symposium, March 10-12, 1975, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C. (10pp, 569K, About PDF)

Frey, D. 1977. Biological integrity of water: an historical approach (PDF). Pages 127-140 in R.K. Ballentine and L.J. Guarraia (editors). The Integrity of Water. Proceedings of a Symposium, March 10-12, 1975, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C. (18 pp., 1.1M, About PDF)

Hughes, R.M., J.H. Gakstatter, M.A. Shirazi.and J.M. Omernik. 1982. An approach for determining biological integrity in flowing waters. Pages 877-888 in T.B. Brown (editor). In Place Resource Inventories: Principles and Practices, A National Workshop. Paper presented at the workshop August 9-14, 1981. Society of American Foresters, Bethesda, Maryland. (12 pp., 525K, About PDF)

Karr, J. R. 1981. Assessment of biotic integrity using fish communities. Fisheries (Bethesda) 6: 21-27. (7 pp., 193K, About PDF)

Karr, J.R. and D.R. Dudley. 1981. Ecological perspectives on water quality goals. Environmental Management 5:55-68. (14 pp., 411K, About PDF)

Whittier, T.R., D.P. Larsen, R.M. Hughs, C.M. Rohm, A.L. Gallant and J.M. Omernik. 1987. The Ohio Stream Regionalization Project: A Compendium of Results. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Environmental Research Laboratory, Corvallis, OR. (EPA-600-3-87-025 June 1987)(73pp, 2.7M, About PDF)

Also see:

Jackson, S and W. Davis. 1994. Meeting the Goal of Biological Integrity in Water-Resource Programs in the US Environmental Protection Agency. Journal of the North American Benthological Society, Vol. 13, No. 4, 592-597. Dec., 1994 (6 pp., 445K, About PDF)

Jorling, Thomas. 1977. Incorporating Ecological Interpretation into Basic Statutes. Pages 9-14 in R.K. Ballentine and L.J. Guarraia (editors). The Integrity of Water. Proceedings of a Symposium, March 10-12, 1975, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C. (10 pp., 569K, About PDF)

Karr, J.R. and E. W. Chu. 1997. Biological Monitoring and Assessment: Using Multimetric Indexes Effectively (PDF). (EPA-235-R97-001 December 1997) (155 pp, 7.5M, About PDF)

Woodwell, G.M.. 1977. Biological Integrity - 1975. Pages 141-147 in R.K. Ballentine and L.J. Guarraia (editors). The Integrity of Water. Proceedings of a Symposium, March 10-12, 1975, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C. (11 pp., 651K, About PDF)

 

Biological Indicators | Aquatic Biodiversity | Statistical Primer

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