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Limnologica 35 (2005) 169–176
Comparing modified biological monitoring working party score system and
several biological indices based on macroinvertebrates for water-quality
assessment
Izabela Czerniawska-Kusza
Department of Land Protection, University of Opole, Oleska 22, 45-052 Opole, Poland
Received 11 January 2005; accepted 10 May 2005
Abstract
Macroinvertebrate communities from the lower Nysa K"odzka River catchment, southern Poland, were analyzed
seasonally, in order to assess changes in their composition and structure, in relation to water quality. Two major
groups of sites, differing in both morphological structure and taxonomical composition by cluster analysis, were
identified within the catchment area. Wider and deeper sites, located along the Nysa K"odzka River, were associated
with the dominance of Chironomidae. Sites assigned along tributaries were characterized by a diversified structure of
dominant taxa, including Oligochaeta, Hirudinea, Crustacea, Trichoptera, Ephemeroptera and Diptera. The
performance of the modified procedure, named BMWP(PL) index, in accurately classifying 26 sites has been assessed
through comparison with saprobic, diversity and biotic indices as well as chemical data. Due to diversified taxa
richness and the presence or absence of specific indicator groups, values of the BMWP(PL) index varied from 27 to 93,
and were correlated with the other biological indices and chemical variables. It has been stated that there is strong
potential for application of the BMWP(PL) system in Poland, although some further testing is recommended.
r2005 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Macroinvertebrates; Biological indices; Water quality; Nysa K"odzka river
Introduction
Looking through the history of running water-quality
assessment based on biological indicators one observes
that at least 100 indices have been developed over the
past tens of years, of which about 60% are biotic ones
based on macroinvertebrate analysis (De Pauw &
Hawkes, 1993). Biotic indices are numerical expressions
combining a quantitative measure of species diversity
with qualitative information on the ecological sensitivity
of individual taxa, among others. They are based on two
principles: (1) macroinvertebrates Plecoptera,Ephemer-
optera, Trichoptera, Gammarus, Asellus, red midges
Chironomidae and Tubificidae disappear in the order
mentioned as the organic pollution level rises, (2) the
number of taxonomic groups is reduced as pollution
increases (Hellawell, 1986). Of course, the sequence of
disappearing macroinvertebrates reflects only a general
trend of their increasing tolerance against organic
pollution. Indices developed for a particular geographi-
cal region, like the Belgian Biotic Index (BBI) (De Pauw
& Vanhooren, 1983) or the Biological Monitoring
Working Party (BMWP) score system for river pollution
surveys in the UK (Armitage, Moss, Wright, & Furse
(1983) have been successfully applied in other countries,
including Spain (Zamora-Munoz & Alba-Tercedor,
ARTICLE IN PRESS
www.elsevier.de/limno
0075-9511/$ - see front matter r2005 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.limno.2005.05.003
E-mail address: Izabela.Kusza@uni.opole.pl.
1996), Argentina (Capitulo, Tangorra, & Ocon, 2001),
Canada (Barton & Metcalfe-Smith, 1992) and Thailand
(Mustow, 2002), among others. However, the applica-
tion of biological indices for environmental conditions
or pollution types other than the ones they were
developed for requires their previous adaptation.
Recent water-quality monitoring programmes in Po-
land were mainly based on the determination of physical
and chemical parameters. Sporadically applied biologi-
cal methods used the saprobic index based on the
analysis of microorganisms belonging to the plankton
community. With the reference to running waters, there
are many limitations concerning the application of this
method in the biological water-quality assessment. The
main objections are as follows: specific list of species and
saprobic values, which attributed to species may not be
appropriate over a wide geographical area; difficulties in
the taxonomic identification of microorganisms; and the
lack of possibilities of the presentation of local condi-
tions, due to the analyses of the community drifted by
water current, often of allochthonous origin. Therefore,
interest has been shown in the application of biological
water-quality monitoring techniques using macroinver-
tebrates, which tend to be advantageous, cost-effective
and simple in use. Since 1999, an attempt has been made
towards the elaboration of a biological method, in
relation with European Union requirements, for asses-
sing the biological quality of running water. Results
from the investigation, which was carried out all
over Poland, has led to the adaptation of the BMWP
score system.
Kownacki, Soszka, Kudelska, and Fleituch (2004)
have reported on the modification of the BMWP system,
which is based on a score derived from points attributed
to different invertebrate families, according to their
degree of intolerance against organic pollution. The
biotic system has been modified as follows: (1) several
families were given new scores, e.g. dipterans Chirono-
midae (original score 2 – new score 3), mayflies
Leptophlebiidae (10–7) and snails Ancylidae (6–3), (2)
several families were included in the Polish system that
are not used in the original BMWP score, e.g.
dragonflies Calopterigidae, dipterans Blephariceridae
and mayflies Ameletidae. These are families that do
not exist in the UK due to zoographical isolation,
although in Polish conditions constitute good indicators
of water quality.
The purpose of this study is to present (1) an overall
picture of the macroinvertebrate communities along the
streams in the lower Nysa K"odzka River system, (2) the
biological water quality of the investigated rivers based
on benthic communities, (3) the modified BMWP score
system, called BMWP(PL), by accurately classifying the
investigated sites through comparison with other biolo-
gical indices. These comprised: the most commonly used
nonparametric community structure indices of Margalef
(D) and Shannon (H) (Washington, 1984), the saprobic
index in Friedrich’s modification, SI (Friedrich, 1990),
the BBI (De Pauw & Vanhooren, 1983) and the BMWP
score system (Armitage et al., 1983). Apart from
diversity indices, four other biological methods applied
for water-quality assessment were developed in Europe.
Materials and methods
Study area
Field studies were conducted within the catchment
area of the lower Nysa K"odzka River (catchment area:
729 km
2
), downstream two retention reservoirs in
Otmucho
´w and Nysa (southern Poland). Twenty-six
sampling sites were established along the Nysa K"odzka
river (sites N1-6) and its six tributaries, being 1st and
2nd order streams: Cielnica (C1-4), Korzkiew (KO1-3),
Potok Skoroszycki (P1-2), Stara Srtuga (SS1-2),
Kamienica (K1-2) and S
´cinawa Niemodlin
´ska (S1-7)
(Fig. 1). Sites were selected: (1) to be easily accessible, (2)
to permit a sampling of all representative habitats for
each study site, (3) to have no or significantly modified
stream channel.
Ranges for physical variables recorded at the sam-
pling sites were as follows: mean width of streams
ARTICLE IN PRESS
Fig. 1. Location of the study area and the sampling stations.
I. Czerniawska-Kusza / Limnologica 35 (2005) 169–176170
0.6–34 m, mean depth 0.15–25 m, mean flow velocity
20–110 cm s
1
(Table 1).The slopes of the study sites
ranged from 0.5%to 6%. The substratum consisted
mainly of sand and gravel, covered in part by fine
particulate organic matter. Major land uses in the
catchment basin include agriculture and urban develop-
ment. Therefore, the main water hazard in the investi-
gated area is caused by an excessive inflow of nutrient
compounds. Results of physical and chemical analyses
confirm the higher content of such pollutants as
phosphorus, phosphates and nitrogen (data from
Regional Inspectorate of Environmental Protection in
Opole).
Sampling techniques
Altogether, 156 samples of macroinvertebrates were
collected during spring, summer and autumn seasons in
years 2001–2002. At each site, two or three samples were
taken from various locations by means of the standard
Surber Sampler. Qualitative samples were also taken in
order to capture taxa richness more completely. Look-
ing for the biggest spatial heterogenity within a distance
of 2 m, a kick-sampling technique was applied using a
handnet (0.5 mm mesh size). Then, the content of each
sample was washed in the field by a sieve with a mesh
size of 0.5 mm. The collected individuals were preserved
in 70% ethanol. Identification was done to the lowest
possible taxonomic level (Ko"odziejczyk & Koperski,
2000;Piechocki, 1979).
Data analysis
The degree of similarity between macroinvertebrate
communities and classification of sites was defined on
the basis of Ward’s method and a hierarchical cluster
analysis (Bis, Zdanowicz, & Zalewski, 2000). For each
site, in addition to the measure of total number of taxa
and abundance, the diversity (D, H), saprobic (SI) and
biotic (BBI, BMWP, BMWP-PL) indices were calcu-
lated. Correlations between biological indices and
chemical variables were computed using the nonpara-
metric Spearman’s rank coefficient of correlation. All
statistical analyses were performed using the STATIS-
TICA package (version 5.1 PL).
For the statistical analyses a ln ðxþ1Þtransformation
was used for the values of biological and chemical
parameters to reduce the effects of extreme values
(Digby & Kempton, 1987).
Results
Examination of all samples resulted in a total number
of 44 families representing the orders Oligochaeta,
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Table 1. Mean values of environmental and chemical parameters at the sampling sites of the lower Nysa K"odzka River catchment
Parameter/site N1 N2 N3 N4 N5 N6 C1 C2 C3 C4 KO1 KO2 KO3 P1 P2 SS1 SS2 K1 K2 S1 S2 S3 S4 S5 S6 S7
Width (m) 30 27 26 30 34 33 1 1.8 3.2 3.5 0.8 1.3 2.5 1.6 1.7 2.3 1.8 0.9 1.2 0.6 3.5 4.3 2.5 2.3 6.0 5.5
Depth (m) 1.8 2.2 2.5 2.3 1.9 2.5 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.4 0.4 0.6 0.5 0.3 0.8 0.15 0.3 0.2 0.8 0.3 0.4 0.7 0.9 1.0 0.7 1.7
Flow velocity (cm s
1
) 80 110 90 100 110 110 20 24 29 24 24 38 35 21 29 31 35 53 29 49 32 35 58 37 85 64
DO (mg dm
3
) 10.0 — — 9.4 10.3 10.7 — 6.3 9.5 10.1 — 7.4 9.5 8.6 7.7 10.2 9.1 10.1 7.6 10.6 6.5 8.6 — 10.9 10.4 8.2
NO
2
-N (mg dm
3
) 0.03 — — 0.04 0.03 0.03 — 0.09 0.05 0.04 — 0.09 0.04 0.07 0.11 0.03 0.04 0.07 0.09 0.03 0.05 0.06 — 0.03 0.02 0.06
NH
4
-N (mg dm
3
) 0.4 — — 0.6 0.5 0.4 — 3.3 0.9 0.5 — 1.2 0.4 0.7 2.0 0.3 0.5 0.4 0.9 0.3 3.5 1.0 — 0.4 1.3 1.4
PO
4
-P (mg dm
3
) 0.1 — — 0.3 0.2 0.1 — 0.9 0.5 0.3 — 0.7 0.2 0.2 0.6 0.1 0.1 0.4 0.6 0.1 2.5 1.0 — 0.2 0.4 0.7
P – total (mg dm
3
) 0.2 — — 0.7 0.2 0.2 — 0.6 0.6 0.2 — 0.4 0.2 0.3 0.8 0.2 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.1 0.9 0.3 — 0.1 0.3 0.6
I. Czerniawska-Kusza / Limnologica 35 (2005) 169–176 171
Hirudinea, Crustacea, Gastropoda, Bivalvia, Ephemer-
optera, Trichoptera, Odonata, Coleoptera, Heteroptera,
Megaloptera and Diptera. The total number of identi-
fied families varied between eight and 22 among
particular sites. During each sampling, the minimum
number of families (o8) was found in the middle
stretches of Cielnica (sites C2-3) and Korzkiew (KO2)
streams and the upper stretch of S
´cinawa Niemodlin
´ska
(S2) one. On the other hand, the maximum number of
families (416) was usually observed within areas
without settlements, i.e. in the headwaters of S
´cinawa
Niemodlin
´ska (S1) and Stara Struga (SS1) streams, as
well as the lower stretches of Cielnica (C4) and
Korzkiew (KO3) streams and the Nysa K"odzka river
(site N6). At these locations the greatest total taxa
number and the presence of the more sensitive ones to
anthropogenic disturbance were simultaneously re-
corded. Whereas, in polluted areas taxa representing
caddisflies Trichoptera (Limnephilidae,Leptoceridae,
Polycentropodidae, Hydropsychidae), mayflies Ephe-
meroptera (Heptageniidae, Ephemerellidae, Ephemeri-
dae, Baetidae, Caenidae) and also dragonflies Odonata
(Caloperygidae, Coenagrionidae, Platycnemididae) dis-
appeared or their numbers were significantly reduced.
The most evident changes were recorded along the
S
´cinawa Niemodlin
´ska River. At sites S1 and S5,
benthic macrofauna revealed the highest taxa richness
considering caddiesflies (four and five families, respec-
tively) and mayflies (four and two families). These
insects were absent at site S2. At the remaining four
sites, caddiesflies and mayflies were represented only by
Hydropsychidae, Limnephilidae and Baetidea. More-
over, particular families did not exceed 50 larvae,
contrary to site S1.
Fauna of the lower Nysa K"odzka River system
was dominated by chironomid larvae, but the dom-
inance structure differed among particular sites. Chir-
onomidae were the dominant taxa in the majority (14)
of the investigated sites, constituting from 36.8%
to 61.2% of the benthic community structure. While
among the remaining 12 sites macroinvertebrates
showed greater differentiation in the community struc-
ture and the most abundant taxa were caddies larvae of
Hydropsychidae (34.2–62%) and Limnephilidae (54%),
mayflies Baetidae (24.7–60.4%), dipterans Limonidae
(21%) and Simulidae (38.8%),oligochaetes Tubificidae
(42.6–79%),freshwater hoglouse Asellus aquaticus L.
(24.3%) and a predatory leech Erpobdella octoculata L.
(25–55.5%). All other organisms were found in lower
numbers and the abundance of particular taxa did not
exceed 10%.
Site classification based on the macroinvertebrate
composition as a result of cluster analysis is presented in
Fig. 2. The dendrogram separates all sampling sites into
two major groups, namely those of the Nysa K"odzka
River (with the exception of N5) and its tributaries
(without C4 and KO3). The first major group, compris-
ing almost all sites located along the trunk river as well
ARTICLE IN PRESS
Linkage distance
sites
S5
S1
S4
S3
C2
C1
SS1
S6
KO2
K2
K1
SS2
P1
S2
P2
KO1
S7
C3
N5
KO3
C4
N6
N3
N4
N2
N1
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9
A
B
C
D
E
F
A
B
I
II
Fig. 2. Classification of sites based on similarities of macroinvertebrate communities. Ward’s clustering method.
I. Czerniawska-Kusza / Limnologica 35 (2005) 169–176172
as in the mouths of two left-bank tributaries (the
Cielnica and Korzkiew streams), was characterized by a
number of taxa with habitats in slowly flowing water
with sandy substrate abundant in the detritus, riparian
vegetation and open canopy, e.g. common mollusc
Bithynia tentaculata L., Lymnaea sp., and Sphaerium
spp., and atmospheric breathing heteropterans Sigara
sp. Further division resulted in two subgroups IA and
IB, revealing moderate and low level of water pollution,
respectively. This was caused by the higher taxa richness
(420 families) and the presence of taxa indicating low
nutrient load conditions (Leptoceridae, Heptageniidae)
in sites forming IB subgroup, in comparison with the
IA one.
The second major group included almost all sites
located along left- and right-bank tributaries, and also
one site (N5) of the trunk river. This site, however, had a
different character when compared to the other ones at
the Nysa K"odzka River, due to very shallow littoral
zones. The results of the cluster analysis allowed for
further separation of six subgroups of sites (IIA–IIF).
They were characterized by a diversified structure of
dominant taxa. The most abundant and representative
families, apart from ubiquitous Chironomidae, were as
follows: A – coleopterans Dytiscidae and oligochates
resistant to organic pollution Tubificidae; B – leeches
Erpobdellidae and Glossiphonidae; C – mayflies Baeti-
dae and dipterans Limoniidae; D – caddisflies Hydro-
psychidae; E – dipterans Simuliidae; F – caddisflies
Limnephilidae, Leptoceridae and Polycentropodidae.
Changes in the number of recorded taxa among
particular sites as well as the presence/absence of
organisms sensitive to pollution had a direct impact on
the results obtained during the water-quality assessment.
Values of the indices, calculated for each site, showed a
similar pattern when compared with the taxonomic
abundance (Table 2). Generally, the narrowest range of
indices’ values was usually obtained for sites situated
along the streams of Kamienica (K1-2), Potok Skor-
oszycki (P1-2) and Stara Struga (SS1-2). These are
small streams (1st order), flowing through agricul-
tural areas and villages, where both sites are character-
ized by similar anthropogenic pressures and abiotic
properties, e.g. width, depth and current velocity. On the
other hand, the widest range was obtained for the
streams of Cielnica, Korzkiew and S
´cinawa Niemo-
dlin
´ska. All of them flow through villages and inten-
sively cultivated areas as well as uninhabited areas,
where meandering natural stream profiles have been
preserved. Thus, sites assigned to the study varied
considerably, from those with relatively low impact, a
diverse macrofauna and, consequently, with high index
scores (C4, KO3, S1, S5) to sites being significantly
contaminated by organic pollutants, low index scores,
resulting from less diverse fauna assemblages (C2-3,
KO2, S2).
ARTICLE IN PRESS
Table 2. Mean values of biotic, diversity and saprobic indices of 26 sites in the study area
Index/site N1 N2 N3 N4 N5 N6 C1 C2 C3 C4 KO1 KO2 KO3 P1 P2 SS1 SS2 K1 K2 S1 S2 S3 S4 S5 S6 S7
BMWP(PL) 51 52 68 50 36 78 46 27 28 89 46 28 87 40 30 69 59 65 63 88 29 51 49 93 57 46
BMWP 47 39 56 32 28 77 34 21 26 68 35 18 88 29 27 63 51 46 58 82 33 44 39 81 39 40
BBI 67764965496 5 7 6698889777977
Margalef (D) 1.6 1.5 2.1 1.6 1.0 2.2 1.6 1.2 1.3 2.6 1.4 1.0 2.5 1.2 1.2 2.1 1.8 1.3 1.2 2.8 1.3 2.0 1.8 2.7 2.2 1.5
Shannon (H) 1.5 1.7 1.5 1.2 1.1 1.6 1.3 1.2 1.0 1.6 2.0 1.3 2.9 1.2 1.1 2.4 2.4 2.1 1.7 2.6 1.1 1.5 1.6 2.1 1.4 1.3
Saprobic (SI) 2.5 2.2 1.8 1.6 2.9 1.5 2.6 2.8 3.1 1.5 2.4 3.0 1.9 2.5 2.7 1.5 1.8 2.3 2.4 1.4 3.2 2.5 2.4 1.6 2.3 2.9
I. Czerniawska-Kusza / Limnologica 35 (2005) 169–176 173
The BMWP(PL) index varied from 27 to 93 scores
which, according to Polish classification, corresponded
with the range of the classes IV–II of water quality, i.e.
from heavily polluted to slightly polluted (Table 3).
Altogether, the percentage distribution of the
BMWP(PL) mean values revealed slightly polluted
(23.1%), moderately polluted (61.5%) and heavily
polluted (15.4%) sites.
As shown in Table 4, BMWP(PL) score system was
well correlated with five common variables of chemical
water quality (DO: 0.6814, po0:001; nutrient com-
pounds: from 0.5017, po0:05 to 0.7111, po0:001).
Similar significant correlations, though slightly lower
(except for phosphates), were obtained between chemi-
cal parameters and the saprobic index. The other
biological indices were all correlated with DO, ammo-
nium nitrogen and P-total.
Discussion
Within the last decades, an increasing effort has been
devoted to designing a more effective use of macro-
invertebrates as monitoring and assessment tools for
management of water resources (Buffagni, Crosa,
Harper, & Kemp, 2000;Lorenz, Hering, Feld, &
Rolauffs, 2004). The most effective use of such tools
occurs when there is a clear understanding of the
mechanisms, which lead to the presence or absence of
species in the environment. The distribution of macro-
invertebrates is known to be influenced by their response
to various factors, such as food availability (Peeters,
Gylstra, & Vos, 2004), hydraulic conditions (Voelz,
Shien, & Ward, 2000), substrate composition (Sandin &
Johnson, 2004) and increase in nutrient loads (Buss,
Baptista, Silveira, Nessimian, & Dorville, 2002;Camar-
go, Alonso, & De la Puente, 2004). Moreover, the
invertebrate fauna of different habitats is known to
respond in different ways to water-quality variations
(Parsons & Norris, 1996).
In the present study, the highest taxonomic richness
of Trichoptera and Ephemeroptera was found at sites
S1, SS1 (headwaters of streams), S5 and KO3 (stretches
displaying suitable conditions for the self-purification of
streams). However, the highest abundance for both
orders occurred at sites K2, P1 and SS2, displaying an
intermediate level of degradation. This was due to the
high abundance of mayflies Baetidae and caddisflies
Hydropsychidae. Both families are regarded as tolerant
to organic pollution among mayflies and caddisflies,
respectively, with species being segregated within
different water-quality characteristics. Studies on cad-
diesflies from the Spanish Mediterranean coast (Bonada,
Zamora-Munoz, Rieradevall, & Prat, 2004) revealed
that at the family and species levels certain caddiesflies
were sensitive to some variables but more tolerant to
others, pointing at a high ecological diversification in
rivers. Hydropsyche dinarica, for example, occurred
sensitive to suspended solids and tolerant to phosphates.
This may explain the presence of genera of Hydropsyche
sp. and Baetis sp., though in low abundance, even in
more nutrient contaminated river reaches of Cielnica
and Korzkiew. However, insects belonging to mayflies
and caddiesflies were not registered at sites S2 and C3,
assigned along stream stretches with modified bank,
limited abundance of macrophytes, and also subjected
to uncontrolled domestic sewage discharge from un-
sewered villages. Sensitivity of these insects can be
explained by their need for rather unpolluted water with
high dissolved oxygen and low siltation (Lemny, 1982).
On the other hand, larvae of Chironomidae showed
higher abundance with increasing organic pollution,
ARTICLE IN PRESS
Table 4. Values of correlation coefficients between the biological indices and the most relevant chemical variables
Variables DO NO
2
NH
4
PO
4
P-total
BMWP(PL) 0.6814 0.5333* 0.6318* 0.5017** 0.7110
BMWP 0.5827* 0.5127** 0.5431* nc 0.6443*
BBI 0.6384* nc 0.6114 * 0.5521* 0.7228
D 0.6254* 0.6419* 0.4396 ** nc 0.5423*
H 0.4482 ** nc 0.5190 ** nc 0.6743
SI 0.6632 0.5224* 0.6228* 0.6028* 0.5955*
po0:001; po0:01; po0:05; nc – non correlated.
Table 3. Percentage distribution of water-quality classes,
based on mean values of BMWP(PL), in particular streams
and rivers
River Water-quality classes
II (%) III (%) IV (%)
Nysa K"odzka 15 85 —
Kamienica — 100 —
S
´cinawa Niemodlin
´ska 30 55 15
Cielnica 25 25 50
Korzkiew 33 34 33
Potok Skoroszycki — 100 —
Stara Struga 50 50 —
I. Czerniawska-Kusza / Limnologica 35 (2005) 169–176174
despite their dominance (410%) or subdominance
(9.9–1%) at most of the sites. Many authors (Grzyb-
kowska, 1993;Dumnicka, 2002) have already demon-
strated a significantly higher density and biomass of
gathering collectors (Oligochaeta, Chironomidae) in
river stretches affected by anthropogenic organic pollu-
tion. Chironomids appear to be least affected by
environmental changes and may have more efficient
recolonization mechanisms (Pires, Cowx, & Coelho,
2000).
As might be expected (Bis et al., 2000;Sandin &
Johnson, 2004), the distribution of aquatic fauna within
the study area is strongly determined by environmental
variables, both chemical parameters of water and
physical features of streams. Ward’s method of cluster
analysis segregated sites into several groups indicating
similarities among macroinvertebrate communities. At
present stage, the research focused on the investigation
of the macroinvertebrate assemblages and the assess-
ment of biological water quality of streams, where this
information has not become available yet.
It is concluded that corresponding ranges of taxa
richness/abundance and water-quality indices are deter-
mined by the same factors, and reflect the natural and
anthropogenic disturbances in the Nysa K"odzka River
system. Mean values of the BMWP(PL) scores showed
significant differences between relatively undisturbed
(S1, S5, C4, KO3, SS1) and anthropogenically impacted
(S2, C2-3, KO2) river stretches. They also showed a high
correlation with several chemical variables. According
to Armitage et al. (1983), the use of the average value of
the family biotic indices seems to be preferable to the
total value because average scores are less sensitive to
sampling effort, seasonal changes and macroinverte-
brate diversity. The other biological indices followed the
same trend and indicated an overall increase in nutrient
pollution, particularly along the middle reaches of
Cielnica and Korzkiew streams as well as at S2 site of
S
´cinawa Niemodlin
´ska. The saprobic index, however,
seemed to be more restricted in water-quality classifica-
tion in comparison with the BMWP(PL), as about 19%
of the investigated sites obtained lower quality.
Although saprobic and biotic indices are well correlated
with organic pollution (Dahl, Johnson, & Sandin, 2004),
saprobic indices proved to have a higher discriminatory
power in undisturbed or poor water-quality conditions
(Sandin & Hering, 2004). The degree of tolerance at the
family level is related to the diversity of species and the
tolerance range of individual species, therefore scores at
the family level usually use intermediate values of
species tolerance (Walley, Grbowitc
ˇ, & Dzeroski,
2001). In this regard, indices at the family level may
under- or overestimate water quality more than those
based on species. Notwithstanding, indices at the family
level may be adequate in terms of cost-efficiency and
taxonomic experts available. Results obtained in this
study are in agreement with the opinion and considera-
tions of many authors (e.g. Graca & Coimbra, 1998)
about the need and usefulness of the biotic index
application in routine programmes of running water-
quality monitoring.
In conclusion, the invertebrate fauna of the investi-
gated streams and rivers are sensitive to the environ-
mental conditions experienced and can, therefore, be
used as a valuable monitoring tool in assessing fresh-
water ecosystems. The modified procedure, named the
BMWP(PL) index, clearly distinguished impacted from
relatively unpolluted sites and was correlated with the
other existing biological indices and chemical variables.
Although there is still a need for more intensive study
and further testing of the effectiveness of the
BMWP(PL) score, especially when incorporating the
effects of abundance and biotop type, the index would
be of use for the authorities responsible for water-
quality monitoring and control.
Acknowledgements
Special thanks to Barry Dunne for the linguistic
corrections of the manuscript. The anonymous re-
viewers provided helpful suggestions and comments on
an earlier version of this paper. All this help is gratefully
acknowledged.
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