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<p>Multimetric indices (MMIs) are widely used tools for river bioassessment, yet their development often does not explicitly consider community assembly processes and multiple facets of biodiversity. In this study, we developed a macroinvertebrate-based MMI for assessing the ecological health of tributary streams in the Hanjiang River Basin, a key water source for China’s South-to-North Water Diversion Project. We established a framework for systematically screening candidate metrics across taxonomic, functional, and phylogenetic facets, while accounting for the influence of anthropogenic disturbance, spatial structure, and natural environmental gradients. The screening process excluded all functional and phylogenetic&#xa0;(taxonomic distinctness)&#xa0;diversity indices. This pattern may be associated with high functional redundancy within the local species pool and a paradoxical increase of taxonomic distinctness under disturbance, reflecting an environmental filtering process that favors tolerant yet taxonomically disparate lineages. The final MMI included five metrics related to pollution tolerance (tolerant taxa richness), functional traits (% Clingers), and taxonomic composition (% EPT richness, % Chironomidae richness, and Coleoptera richness), which demonstrated high sensitivity to human disturbance with minimal confounding effects. The MMI effectively distinguished among reference, moderately impacted, and severely degraded conditions, and showed stable performance across temporal and spatial validation datasets. Overall, our results suggest that a structured, multistep screening framework can yield parsimonious and effective indices for bioassessment. As bioassessment science evolves toward integrating multiple&#xa0;biodiversity&#xa0;facets and ecological processes, frameworks like ours will be essential for translating theoretical advances into tools that meaningfully inform conservation policy and management actions.</p>

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A framework for developing a macroinvertebrate multimetric index incorporating multiple biodiversity facets and community assembly processes

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2026年6月23日

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  • Zhengfei Li,
  • Rongli Miao,
  • Jiali Yang,
  • Jing Xiong,
  • Xiaoming Jiang,
  • Xiangbin Wang,
  • Zhicai Xie,
  • Junqian Zhang

摘要

Multimetric indices (MMIs) are widely used tools for river bioassessment, yet their development often does not explicitly consider community assembly processes and multiple facets of biodiversity. In this study, we developed a macroinvertebrate-based MMI for assessing the ecological health of tributary streams in the Hanjiang River Basin, a key water source for China’s South-to-North Water Diversion Project. We established a framework for systematically screening candidate metrics across taxonomic, functional, and phylogenetic facets, while accounting for the influence of anthropogenic disturbance, spatial structure, and natural environmental gradients. The screening process excluded all functional and phylogenetic (taxonomic distinctness) diversity indices. This pattern may be associated with high functional redundancy within the local species pool and a paradoxical increase of taxonomic distinctness under disturbance, reflecting an environmental filtering process that favors tolerant yet taxonomically disparate lineages. The final MMI included five metrics related to pollution tolerance (tolerant taxa richness), functional traits (% Clingers), and taxonomic composition (% EPT richness, % Chironomidae richness, and Coleoptera richness), which demonstrated high sensitivity to human disturbance with minimal confounding effects. The MMI effectively distinguished among reference, moderately impacted, and severely degraded conditions, and showed stable performance across temporal and spatial validation datasets. Overall, our results suggest that a structured, multistep screening framework can yield parsimonious and effective indices for bioassessment. As bioassessment science evolves toward integrating multiple biodiversity facets and ecological processes, frameworks like ours will be essential for translating theoretical advances into tools that meaningfully inform conservation policy and management actions.