Environmental Services
Program
- ESP Home Page
- Env. Emergency Response System
- Investigating Hazardous Wastes
- Responding to Env. Emergencies
- Air Quality Monitoring
- Air Pollution Bid Requests
- Water Quality Monitoring
- Chemical Analysis
- Report an Environmental Concern
- Homeland Security
- Methamphetamine
- Standard Operating Procedures
Biological Assessments
Traditional chemical monitoring methods alone are considered insufficient to characterize instream impacts from certain types of pollution, particularly diffuse nonpoint source pollution, or problems that are expressed as physical rather than chemical changes in the stream or riparian environment. Biological monitoring is a sensitive and inexpensive way to monitor these types of problems.
Macroinvertebrates are good indicators of water quality for several reasons: they have limited mobility, they are easy and inexpensive to collect, and different species are known to have different tolerances to pollutants. Determining whether there is evidence of biological impact requires a thorough understanding of biotic communities and how they vary spatially, temporally and in response to various stressors.
Biological Assessment Reports
The Environmental Services Program, at the request of the department's Water Pollution Control Program, samples a selected number of sites annually. Sites are monitored in the spring and the fall. Biological assessments may fulfill different purposes:
- Assess biological integrity of impaired or potentially impaired stream or river reaches
- Aquatic macroinvertebrate studies in wadeable streams throughout Missouri characterize "reference conditions," including the spatial and temporal variation in invertebrate community composition that occurs in these reference streams.
- Aquatic macroinvertebrate studies and associated habitat assessments conducted in coordination with fish community monitoring by the Missouri Department of Conservation.
Biological Criteria for Missouri Wadeable/Perennial Streams Reports
