{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.01905972045743329, 'fraction_numerical': 0.005082592121982211, 'mean_word_length': 5.3, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Research Article: An evaluation of the accuracy of order-level biotic indices for southern Appalachian streams

Abstract Macroinvertebrate biotic indices are widely used in the assessment of water quality. Brevard College's biology classes utilize an order-level biotic index created in Wisconsin, the Wisconsin Biotic Index (WBI), in part because of its ease of use. The North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources makes water quality assessments using the North Carolina Biotic Index (NCBI), which accounts for the sample's ecoregion and season and assigns each individual species its own pollution tolerance level. Studies have shown that genus and species-level tolerance values provide more accurate water quality assessments than order-level. Because identification to genus and species may be difficult for beginners, assigning a mean order-level tolerance value for each group could make the NCBI more user-friendly (ONCBI). Both indices were compared to the NCBI using samples collected from three distinct locations on the Davidson River in the months of October 2002 through April 2003. Samples were collected using a kicknet technique twenty times at each location. The results of the study indicate that the ONCBI underestimates the quality of streams in the southern Appalachians; however water quality rankings given by the WBI were not significantly different than those produced by the NCBI. It is suggested that the use of order-level identification is an adequate means of monitoring the quality of streams in the southern Appalachians.