SPEAR (Species At Risk) is a bioindicator system based on biological traits and focused on various types of contaminants in fresh waters. The traits used are responsive to the effects of particular toxicants (e.g. physiological sensitivity) and associated recovery (e.g. generation time). SPEAR bioindicators are developed to complement existing bioassessment methods and indices in order to assess effects of toxicants. Currently, two SPEAR-indicators exist: SPEARpesticides and SPEARorganic designed to detect and quantify effects of pesticides (insecticide toxicity) and general organic toxicants (e.g. petrochemicals, synthetic surfactants) respectively.
Liess M, Schäfer R, Schriever C, 2008. The footprint of pesticide stress in communities (1)
With SPEAR you can
- estimate exposure of certain types of toxicants (e.g. pesticides) using field monitoring data on invertebrates (e.g. for the water framework directive (WFD))
- quantify effects of toxicants on invertebrate communities
- evaluate toxicant effects on meso-microcosms
