This version is deprecated! The current version is 2021.02.!

SPEAR_pesticide

Version: 2017.07

SPEAR_pesticide is a trait based bioindicator that estimates exposure and ecological effect of pesticide contamination in streams on the base of invertebrate monitoring data.

Input

Monitoring Data

Paste your monitoring data here.
Before first use, please delete the example dataset.

Name₁, Name₂ and Name_3: Names of the samplings. A sampling can be identified by one name or, optionally, by a combination of maximal three names (e.g. Germany-Leipzig-2014).
Recovery: Presence of recovery areas. A recovery area is defined as an uncontaminated stream section (e.g. forest, meadow) of more than ~100 m length and within ~3 kilometers upstream of the sampling site. Coding: 1 = presence; 0 = absence; (empty cell) = undefined.
Taxa: Family, genus or species name of the sampled macroinvertebrates.
Abundance: Abundance of macroinvertebrates.

[X] Excluded: Rows are excluded from the calculation if taxa are not correctly linked or the SPEAR_class is undefined. See below.

Taxa Link

Link between taxa of ‘Monitoring Data’ and ’Trait Database’.
New taxa added to ‘Monitoring Data’ are automatically added to this table and linked to taxa with similar names in the ’Trait Database’.
Links can be adapted manually. Taxa not linked will be ignored in the SPEAR calculation.

Button 'Reset links': Reset to default links unsetting all links made by the user.
Button 'Delete taxa not in Monitoring Data': Delete all rows with taxa which are not present in ’Monitoring Data’

[I] Identified By: Taxon found during lookup. Green = taxon was found. Orange = only the first word of the taxon's name could be found. Red = No taxon found. Blue = The user set the taxon manually.
[M] Taxa not present in Monitoring Data: Taxa present in this list but not present oin monitoring data.
[X] Excluded : Rows are excluded from the calculation if taxa are not correctly linked or the SPEAR_class is undefined. See below.

Taxa Traits & Classification

List of traits and SPEAR-classification of linked taxa. Traits can be edited.

Button 'Reset trait values': Reset all trait values to values defined in table ’Trait Database’.
Button 'Delete taxa not in Taxa Link': Delete all rows not linked to taxa in ’Monitoring Data’.

Taxa: Linked taxa in Trait Database.
Sensitivity, Generation, Migration and Exposed: Traits & Classification used for the calculation of the 'SPEAR_class'. Classification of all traits: Green = sensitive trait value; Gray = not sensitive trait value.
SPEAR_class: Final classification of species into ‘Species at risk’ (SPEAR_class = 1) and ‘Species not at risk’ (SPEAR_class = 0).
A species is classified as a ‘Species at risk’ (SPEAR_class = 1) if all four traits are classified as sensitive (green). Species are excluded from the calculation when SPEAR_class 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 SPEAR_class is undefined because of missing trait values.
[X] Excluded: Rows are excluded from the calculation if taxa are not correctly linked or the SPEAR_class is undefined.

Results

Effect & Exposure Estimates

Calculated effect & exposure estimates for all samplings. To export, right click on the table and choose 'Export CSV' from the context menu.

Name₁, Name₂ and Name_3: Names of the samplings.
SPEAR_pesticide: SPEAR_pesticide of sampling sites is given as the relative abundance of ‘Species at risk’ (SPEAR; SPEAR_Class = 1).
EQ_pesticide: The environmental quality of a sampling site 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’.
Recovery: Presence of recovery areas. A recovery area is defined as an uncontaminated stream section (e.g. forest, meadow) of more than ~100 m length and within ~3 kilometers upstream of the sampling site. Coding: 1 = presence; 0 = absence.
TU_estimated: 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

SPEAR_pesticide of sampling sites is given as the relative abundance of ‘Species at risk’ (SPEAR; SPEAR_Class = 1).

Effect Distribution Plot

The environmental impact of pesticide contamination given as the distribution of EQ_pesticide for all sampling sites. The quality classes are based on the concept of the ecological status (WFD) with the following five levels:
‘high’, ‘good’, ‘moderate’, ‘poor’ and ‘bad’.

Advanced Settings

Trait Thresholds

Thresholds for the Species Classification (See below).
Please check and adjust.

Classificationsensitivity: 
if (traitsensitivity > THRESHOLDsensitivity) then 1 else 0

Classificationgeneration time: 
if (traitgeneration time >= THRESHOLDgeneration time) then 1 else 0

Trait Databaase

Default trait values for the SPEAR calculation. These values will be used for the SPEAR calculation of linked taxa unless custom values are defined in table
’Taxa Traits & Classification’.

Group, Family, Genus, Taxa: Group, family, genus and species name according to the AQEM project.
Rank: Level of the taxonomic hierarchy.
Sensitivity: Toxicological sensitivity of a species 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 species. Unit: Year/Generation.
Migration: Ability of a species to migrate. Coding: 1: No migration, 0: Migration.
Exposed: Possibility of a species to be exposed. Coding: 1: Exposed; 0: Not exposed.