812384 Aquatic biomonitoring and -assessment


Type
Lecture
Semester hours
1
Lecturer (assistant)
Schmutz, Stefan , Schwarzinger, Ilse
Organisation
Offered in
Wintersemester 2024/25
Languages of instruction
Englisch

Content

- Overview of history of water quality assessment/bioassessment (assessment principles, concepts and philosophies, river health, ecological integrity)
- Legal requirements (AT, EU, US)
- Indicators (key species, flagship species, ecological guilds, types of metrics)
- Definition of reference conditions (benchmarking)
- Discussion of natural versus human induced variability
- Quantification of pressures (response to human pressures)
- Index computation
- Saprobic approach & aquatic bioindication MZB
- Biotic Indices and Scores (history, princibles, examples from diff. countries)
- Principles of multimetric indices (Index of Biotic Integrity, floodplain index)
- Examples of biomonitoring programmes (A+D in detail, examples from other EU countries/river basins)

Objective (expected results of study and acquired competences)

• Understand principles of bioassessment
• Understand monitoring and assessment methods used for water management and biodiversity conservation
• Apply monitoring and assessment methods
• Interprete monitoring and assessment results
• Understand the role of bioassessment within the legal framework of water management and biodiversity conservation
You can find more details like the schedule or information about exams on the course-page in BOKUonline.