CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 278Freshwater macroinvertebrate diversity and ecologyEnvironmental Toxicology and EcotoxicologyCrustacean biology and ecology

Evaluation of the Gammarus pulex in situ feeding assay as a biomonitor of water quality: Robustness, responsiveness, and relevance

Maltby, Lorraine, Clayton, Sophie A., Wood, Robert M., McLoughlin, Nathan·2002·Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry
DOI 10.1002/etc.5620210219
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

Biomonitoring using benthic macroinvertebrates has been used to assess water quality in Europe since the early 20th century. Most methods use community-level measurements, and the use of single-species responses has been limited, despite their potential benefits as sensitive, early warning indicators. Here we evaluate a single-species in situ assay in which the response is feeding inhibition of the freshwater amphipod Gammarus pulex. The assay was deployed in uncontaminated reference sites to quantify background variability in feeding rates and to elucidate sources of this variation. The ability of the assay to detect impacts of point-source discharges was assessed and the ecological relevance of the assay determined by comparing assay responses to aspects of community structure and functioning. Water temperature accounted for 76% of the variation in the feeding rate of animals deployed at uncontaminated sites, and summer deployments had a >90% power to detect a 30% inhibition in feeding. Inhibition of the situ feeding rate of G. pulex deployed downstream of a variety of point-source discharges ranged from 27 to 99.6%. Gammarus pulex is an important detritivore in stream communities, and a strong positive correlation existed between in situ feeding rate measured over 6 d and leaf decomposition measured over 28 d. A positive correlation also existed between in situ feeding and macroinvertebrate diversity and a biotic index. The G. pulex in situ feeding assay is a short-term sublethal biomonitor of water quality that is indicative of community- and ecosystem-level responses occurring over longer time periods. It is robust, responsive, and relevant.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1002/etc.5620210219

Cites

35 of 35 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

This paper’s full text isn’t openly available, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • G. pulex plays a key role in processing coarse particulate organic matter in streams, is important prey for fish, and its feeding inhibition can alter the benthic macroinvertebrate community.

    “In fact, G. pulex plays a key role in the processing of coarse particulate organic matter in streams,48 is an important prey for fish,49 and its feeding inhibition has shown to alter the benthic macroinvertebrate community,36”

    From Microplastic Effect Thresholds for Freshwater Benthic Macroinvertebrates (2018) · cites this paper as [36]

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
Maltby, L., Clayton, S. A., Wood, R. M., & McLoughlin, N.
Affiliations
  • University of Sheffield (GB)
  • Huntingdon Life Sciences Ltd, Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire PE28 4HS, United Kingdom
Corresponding author
Maltby, Lorraine
ORCID
Maltby, Lorraine
Venue
Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry
Publisher
Oxford University Press (OUP)
Published
2002-02-01
Volume
21
Issue
2
Pages
361-368
ISSN
  • 0730-7268 (ISSN-L)
  • 1552-8618
DOI
10.1002/etc.5620210219
OpenAlex
W2138067175
Cited by
278
References
35
Citations by year
2026: 7 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 9 · 2019: 14 · 2018: 26 · 2017: 17 · 2016: 16 · 2015: 22 · 2014: 17 · 2013: 15 · 2012: 16
FWCI
4.93
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
Locations
  • Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Freshwater macroinvertebrate diversity and ecology
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis › Environmental Toxicology and Ecotoxicology
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Crustacean biology and ecology
Keywords
Gammarus pulex, feeding inhibition, benthic macroinvertebrates, point source discharges, sublethal toxicity, leaf litter decomposition, macroinvertebrate diversity, biotic indices, water temperature effects, stream ecosystems, early warning indicators
MeSH terms
Animals, Biological Assay, Crustacea, Feeding Behavior, Male, Population Dynamics, Sensitivity and Specificity, Temperature, Water Pollutants, Reproducibility of Results, Biomarkers, Ecosystem

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review