United States
                        Environmental Protection
                        Agency
                         Office of Research and
                         Development
                         Washington DC 20460
EPA/620/R-00/005g
     October, 1999
                        Coastal  Communications
 ©TO
EVALUATION GUIDELINES FOR
   ECOLOGICAL INDICATORS
 Background
 The U.S. EPA's Office of Research and Development (ORD) has developed a technical reference document to
 assist researchers and environmental managers in the selection and development of ecological indicators for
 monitoring environmental condition. Entitled Evaluation Guidelines for Ecological Indicators, this document is
 an expansion of previous EMAP efforts to advance the science of environmental monitoring and assessment.
 By presenting  a standardized set of considerations for ecological indicators, the Evaluation Guidelines support
 research initiatives such as Coastal 2000, which addresses the ecological condition of the nation's estuaries,
 and Science to Achieve Results (STAR), ORD's competitive grants program. It also provides environmental
 managers at state and local levels with a useful tool for selecting appropriate indicators to  characterize
 current ecological status and to track or predict significant changes in ecosystems.

 Guidelines
 An ecological indicator is defined here as a measure, an index of measures, or a model that characterizes an
 ecosystem or one of its critical components.  The manual's fifteen technical guidelines are organized within
 four evaluation phases: Conceptual Relevance, Feasibility of Implementation, Response Variability, and
 Interpretation and Utility. In addition to describing the guidelines, the document illustrates the application
 of the guidelines to three indicators in various stages of development. The example indicators include a
 direct chemical measure, dissolved oxygen concentration, as  well as two  multi-metric biological indices, an
 index of estuarine benthic condition and an index based on stream fish assemblages.
                     Illustrations of Guideline 2: Relevance to Ecological Function
                            .  - /  i
                      . Sewage effluent -
                      £l^	f\	
                          *     u
                 '
                ••* Phytoplankton Bloom
               ^* -[» thrives on nutrients
                 -  Dead
                 * material
                 » settles
                       D.O. trapped
                       in lighter layer
   Dissolved Oxygen
    from wave action
   and photosynthesis
    Lighter freshwater

         'ater
                      _^__
                " f  Decomposition
                »••     I
                 '  D.O. used up by
                ^microorganism respiration
                   -•released by bottom sediments  gb|eto avojd
                          D.O. Consumed  hypoxja
                       Decomposition of organic ""
                        matter in sediments *~
                 Conceptual model of hypoxia development
Fish Index of Biotic Integrity
# Native Spp.
# Native Families
# Native Benthic Spp.
# Native Water Column Spp.
Abundance
# Sensitive Spp.
% Tolerants
% Non-natives"
# Trophic Strategies ~
% Carnivores
% Invertivores
% Omnivores
% Herbivores'
# Reproductive Strategies
% Clean Substrate Spawners
% Tolerant Spawners

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1 1 1 1
Poor — Biotic Integrity — > Good
                       Range of ecological conditon (as expressed by biotic integrity) over which
                       individual metrics comprising the indicator are expected to respond.
                       (Modified from Karr and Angermeier [1986], and Karr [1991]).
Further Information
For further information, please contact Laura Jackson at (919) 541-3088 or jackson.laura@epa.gov. A
draft copy of the Evaluation Guidelines is available at the U.S. EPA EMAP web site:
http://www.epa.gov/emap/html/pubs/resdocs/.

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