This version is deprecated! The current version is 2021.02.!
SPEARpesticide
Version: 2018.05
SPEARpesticide is a trait-based bioindicator that estimates exposure and ecological effects of pesticide contamination in small streams on the basis of invertebrate monitoring data. So far the approach has been validated in streams up to 30km² catchment area.
Input
Monitoring Data
Paste your monitoring data here.
Before first use, please delete the example dataset.
Name1, Name2 and Name3: Sampling names. A sampling can be identified by one name or, optionally, by a combination of maximal three names (e.g. Germany, Leipzig, 2014).
Taxa: Family, genus or species name of the sampled macroinvertebrates.
Abundance: Abundance of macroinvertebrates.
[X] Excluded: A data entry is excluded from the SPEAR calculation if the taxon is not correctly linked (see table 'Taxa Link') or the SPEARclass is undefined (see table 'Taxa Traits & Classification').
Taxa Link
By the table 'Taxa Link', all taxa of your ‘Monitoring Data’ are linked to the entries of the SPEAR ’Trait Database’.
New taxa of the 'Monitoring Data’ are automatically linked based on a similarity search.
Links can be adapted manually. Taxa which are not linked will be ignored in the SPEAR calculation.
Button 'Reset links': After a reset, all user-defined links are deleted and replaced by the default links based on the automatic similarity search (see above).
Button 'Delete taxa not in Monitoring Data': This action deletes all rows with unused taxa, i.e. taxa that are not present in the current ’Monitoring Data’ table.
[I] Identified By: Information about the current link status of your taxa. Green = Taxon is correctly identified and linked. Orange = Only the first word of the taxon name is identified and the taxa is linked accordingly. Red = Taxon is NOT identified and the data entry is excluded from the SPEAR calculation. Blue = Taxon name is set manually by the user.
[M] Taxa not present in Monitoring Data: Taxa is present in this list but not present in the current 'Monitoring Data' table.
[X] Excluded : Rows are excluded from the SPEAR calculation if the respective taxon is not correctly linked or the SPEARclass is undefined. See below.
Taxa Traits & Classification
List of trait values and the SPEAR-classification of linked taxa. Trait values can be edited.
Button 'Reset trait values': After a reset, user-defined trait values are deleted and replaced by the default trait values from the table 'Trait Database' (see below).
Button 'Delete taxa not in Taxa Link': This action deletes all rows with unused taxa, i.e. taxa that are not present in the current 'Monitoring Data’ table.
Taxa: Linked taxa names of the 'Trait Database' (see below).
Sensitivity, Generation, Refuge and Exposed: Trait values used for the calculation of the 'SPEARclass' per taxon. The classification of the trait values is marked by the cell color of the table: Green = Sensitive trait value; Gray = Not sensitive trait value.
SPEARclass: Final classification of taxa into ‘Species at risk’ (SPEARclass = 1) and ‘Species not at risk’ (SPEARclass = 0).
A taxon is classified as a ‘Species at risk’ (SPEARclass = 1) if all four traits are classified as sensitive (green). Taxa are excluded from the calculation when the SPEARclass is undefined.
[S] Source: Source of trait values. Green = Trait values are taken from the 'Trait Database'. Blue = Trait values are set by user.
[E] SPEAR Error: The SPEARclass is undefined because of missing trait values.
[X] Excluded: Rows are excluded from the calculation if the respective taxon is not correctly linked or the SPEARclass is undefined.
Results
Effect & Exposure Estimates
Calculated effect & exposure estimates for all samplings. To export the table, right click on the table and choose 'Export CSV' from the context menu.
Name1, Name2 and Name3: Names of the samplings.
SPEARpesticide: SPEARpesticide of the samplings, normalized to reference conditions. SPEARpesticide is given as the relative abundance of ‘Species at risk’ (SPEAR; SPEARClass = 1), normalized by the averaged SPEAR-value for uncontaminated reference sites (for details see Liess & von der Ohe (2005), Liess et al. (2008), Knillmann et al. (2018)).
EQpesticide: The environmental quality of samplings with respect to pesticide contamination. The quality classes are based on the concept of the ecological status (WFD) with the following five levels: ‘high’, ‘good’, ‘moderate’, ‘poor’ and ‘bad’ (see below).
TUestimated: The estimated exposure to pesticides given in Toxic Units (TU). The toxicity of pesticide exposure is standardized to the acute 48h-LC50 of D. magna.
Effect Plot
SPEARpesticide of the samplings, normalized to reference conditions. SPEARpesticide is given as the relative abundance of ‘Species at risk’ (SPEAR; SPEARClass = 1), normalized by the averaged SPEAR-value for uncontaminated reference sites (for details see Liess & von der Ohe (2005), Liess et al. (2008), Knillmann et al. (2018)).
Effect Distribution Plot
The environmental impact of pesticide contamination given as the distribution of EQpesticide for all samplings. The quality classes are based on the concept of the ecological status (WFD) with the following five levels:
‘high’, ‘good’, ‘moderate’, ‘poor’ and ‘bad’ (see below).
The quality classes are based on the concept of the ecological status (WFD) with the following five levels:
| SPEAR | EQpesticides |
|---|---|
| >=0.976 | High (I) |
| >=0.764 | Good (II) |
| >=0.552 | Moderate (III) |
| >=0.341 | Poor (IV) |
| < 0.341 | Bad (V) |
Advanced Settings
Trait Thresholds
Thresholds for the SPEAR classification of taxa (see above).
Please check and adjust.
Classificationsensitivity:
if (traitsensitivity >= THRESHOLDsensitivity) then 1 else 0
Classificationgeneration time:
if (traitgeneration time >= THRESHOLDgeneration time) then 1 else 0Trait Database
Default trait values for the SPEAR calculation. These values will be used for the SPEAR calculation of linked taxa unless user-defined values are defined in the table
’Taxa Traits & Classification’.
Group, Family, Genus, Taxa: Group, family, genus and species name according to the AQEM project.
Rank: Rank of the taxonomic hierarchy.
Sensitivity: Toxicological sensitivity of a taxon to organic pollutions including pesticides. Values are standardized by the toxicological sensitivity of D. magna. Coding: Less sensitive than D. magna < 0 < more sensitive than D. magna.
Generation: Generation time of a taxon. Unit: Year/Generation.
Refuge: Refuge taxa are identified depending on the presence of nearby refuge areas, independently of the level of pesticide pressure. Refuge areas are defined as (i) forested or grassland stream sections with presumably little or no influence of pesticides, (ii) with minimum dimensions of 100 m in width and 300 m in length, (iii) that were at least twice as long as any agricultural stream section in the further upstream and (iv) exhibited a maximal distance to the sampling site of 10 km upstream. For further details see Knillmann et al.(2018). Coding: 1: No refuge taxa, 0: Refuge taxa.
Exposed: Possibility of a taxon to be exposed. Coding: 1: Exposed; 0: Not exposed.
References
Liess M, von der Ohe PC, 2005. Analyzing effects of pesticides on invertebrate communities in streams. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry. 24, pp. 954–965.
Liess M, Schäfer R, Schriever C, 2008. The footprint of pesticide stress in communities - species traits reveal community effects of toxicants. Science of the Total Environment. 406, pp. 484–490.
Knillmann S, Orlinskiy P, Kaske O, Foit K, Liess M, 2018. Indication of pesticide effects and recolonization in streams. Science of the Total Environment. 630, pp. 1619–1627.