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of zero indicates very sensitive to organic pollution. A '10' indicates very tolerant of <br />organic pollution. The FBI for a site is the weighted average of the biotic indexes for all <br />of the invertebrates in the sample. The FBI summarizes the various pollution tolerance <br />values of all families in a sample. Pollution intolerant families such as stoneflies (FBI of <br />0 — 2) can only survive in excellent water quality. Pollution tolerant organisms such as <br />leeches and aquatic earthworms can live in clean water or poor quality water. They have <br />high FBI values (8 — 10). According to Hilsenhoff, who developed this metric, "Use of <br />the FBI is advantageous for evaluating the general status of organic pollution in streams <br />within a watershed for the purpose of deciding which streams or watersheds should be <br />studied further." <br />Historically, the lowest (best) FBI value reported by our monitoring was a 4.4 score at <br />Hardwood Creek `Below' in 2011. The highest (poorest) historical FBI value reported <br />was an 8.8 at the Rice Creek `Above' site in 2006. <br />Index of Biotic Integrity (IBI): "A synthesis of diverse biological information that <br />numerically depicts associations between human influence and biological attributes. It is <br />composed of several biological attributes or `metrics' that are sensitive to changes in <br />biological integrity caused by human activities." <br />Source: Volunteer Surface Water Monitoring Guide, MPCA, 2003 <br />Incomplete Metamorphosis - occurs in the Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, Odonata and <br />Hemiptera. The life cycle includes the following stages: egg, early instar larva, late instar <br />larva and adult. This program monitors the larval stages of development. <br />Macroinvertebrate — An invertebrate that can be seen with the naked eye. <br />Metric- A measure of stream health calculated using data from the macroinvertebrate <br />monitoring. The family biotic index (FBI), EPT and number of families (family richness) <br />are examples of metrics. Metrics are used to help analyze and interpret biological data. <br />Metrics are often compared to charts that place the values into stream health categories. <br />Number of Families - The number of different benthic macroinvertebrate families found <br />at the site, also known as family richness. In general, more diversity is better. Therefore a <br />larger number of families may reflect a healthier community than a smaller number. The <br />largest number of families (20) was discovered at the Hardwood Creek `Below' site, <br />while the fewest number of families (10) were found at the Rice Creek `Above' sampling <br />location. <br />Number of Organisms Identified- The protocol used requires a minimum of 100 <br />organisms to confidently assess a site. When fewer than 100 organisms are identified, the <br />information is still useful, but we cannot be as confident about characterizing the site's <br />health. Teams in this circumstance will select another sub - sample of a site sample and <br />identify all organisms in the second sub - sample in addition to the original sub sample. <br />Scores are tallied based on the combination of both sub - sample results, often resulting in <br />larger numbers of individual macroinvertebrates identifies. <br />• <br />