The biological condition of waters is of interest to many different people of varying backgrounds. Because of this, the data report must be coherent and clearly presented. The goal is to make the report easy to understand for everyone who may read it, from community members to elected officials to managers. Many of these people do not have a background in biology, but they will be the ones utilizing the information in the report to make decisions.
State water resource agencies are encouraged to use more than one biological assemblage when conducting a bioassessment. This provides a much more comprehensive diagnosis of the water resource. However, this approach also presents the issue of integrating the data from multiple assemblages into one understandable report. Sometimes, the findings for each assemblage even suggest a contradiction in the assessment. These contradictions need not be seen as a complication. The various assemblages respond to stressors differently; these differences in results can often be used to analyze the possible causes of impairment.
Another part of the data that must be integrated into the assessment report is the habitat quality information. Oftentimes, aquatic organisms have very specific habitat requirements that are independent of water quality. If habitat quality issues are not addressed, then an incomplete message about the overall site condition will be conveyed. The relationship between habitat quality and biological condition can be graphed to effectively show how they are interrelated.
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