Journal
ECOLOGICAL INDICATORS
Volume 110, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
ELSEVIER
DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolind.2019.105868
Keywords
Biomonitoring; Extremophiles; Taxonomy; Physiology
Categories
Funding
- University of Adelaide
- South Australian Museum
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Chironomids are a formidable indicator taxon, as they are globally ubiquitous, can tolerate a wide range of environmental conditions, and can occur in high numbers in anthropogenically impaired environments where other indicator taxa are not encountered. Biomonitoring is frequently performed through analyzing species composition, abundance and morphology. However, these traditional approaches may be problematic, since indicator taxon morphology is often cryptic, and inadequately assigned species complexes may lead to generalized ecological tolerances. We argue that the use of chironomids in freshwater biomonitoring could be much improved if physiological responses to a given pollutant were measured in conjunction with precisely determined species, aided by molecular approaches such as is already done for some well known mesophilic and extremophile species in certain regions of the world. We explore molecular biological approaches that may prove useful for this purpose.
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