James Stribling

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• Ph. D., Entomology, 1986
• Managing Director at Tetra Tech

Taxonomic identifications are central to biological assessment; thus, documenting and reporting uncertainty associated with identifications is critical. The presumption that comparable results would be obtained, regardless of which or how many taxonomists were used to identify samples, lies at the core of any assessment. As part of a national surve...

The Montana Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) uses 2 forms of benthic macroinvertebrate indicators for detection of stream impairment, a multimetric index (MMI) and a predictive model of observed to expected taxa (O/E), each of which is calibrated to streams across the state. As part of the routine monitoring program, some sample locations...

Conceptually, tolerance values represent the relative capacity of aquatic organisms to survive and reproduce in the presence of known levels of stressors. Operationally, they represent the relative abundance and co-location of organisms and stressors. These numeric values are then used for calculating tolerance metrics. Defensibility of biological...

A diagnosis of adults of the family is given. Anchytarus is revised, the two previously recognized species are redescribed, and A. folliculipalpus, sp. nov. is described from Central and South America. The three are illustrated and keyed. The genus Tetraglossa Champion is synonymized with Anchytarsus Guérin-Méneville, its single species becomes Anc...

Biomonitoring is a crucial tool for enhancing policy responses and ensuring the sustainability of water resources, both closing the gaps on, and complementing, water quality monitoring and other ambient water quality monitoring approaches. To meet the targets of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6: ‘Clean water and sanitation for all’ and address...

Policy Brief. Key Messages: To meet the targets of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6: ‘Clean water and sanitation for all’ and address the global water quality crisis, it will be necessary to integrate biological monitoring and assessment into national and transboundary water quality monitoring frameworks. The intent is to help bridge current da...

This presentation was delivered as part of the special session "S11 IUCN SSC Task Force on Global Freshwater Macroinvertebrate Sampling Protocols (GLOSAM)"

This presentation was delivered during the special session "S08 Algal Taxonomic Data: Embracing New Protocols and Analyses".

Biodiversity monitoring and biological assessment play a vital role in the management and preservation of aquatic ecosystems globally. While sampling of freshwater biota to assess ecological condition has been established in some parts of the world, many countries elsewhere either do not have nationally-approved bioassessment systems, or the bioass...

This study evaluated erosion rates and sediment production in streams, and factors potentially influencing them throughout the Anacostia, Patuxent, and Potomac (non-Anacostia) River watersheds within Prince George's County, Maryland, US. As part of the County's watershed-scale biological monitoring program, from approx. 1999 to 2008, permanent monu...

Monitoring programs at sub-national and national scales lack coordination, harmonization, and systematic review and analysis at continental and global scales, and thus fail to adequately assess and evaluate drivers of biodiversity and ecosystem degradation and loss at large spatial scales. Here we review the state of the art, gaps and challenges in...

The tolerance of aquatic organisms to stressors is widely used to monitor and evaluate the condition of freshwater ecosystems. Tolerance values (TV) derived from analyses of the relationship between species and their environment are considered to be more objective than those that rely on expert opinion. We used principal component analysis (PCA) to...

I delivered this presentation at the 2023 Society for Freshwater Sciences to an invited session on Taxonomic QC, at the Brisbane (AUS) Convention Center. June 07.

I delivered this presentation to a session on Bioassessment at the 2023 Society for Freshwater Sciences. June 07. Brisbane (AUS) Convention Center.

The IUCN SSC Task Force on Global Freshwater Macroinvertebrate Sampling Protocols (https://glosam.un-ihe.org) is conducting a global survey about the existence of nationally-accepted and regionally- (sub-nationally-) accepted freshwater benthic macroinvertebrate protocols that are put in practice/used in each country. Information that you provide w...

Quantitative data quality descriptors are important for evaluating and communicating acceptability of information used in environmental monitoring and assessment. In this chapter, we present (1) the rationale for establishing and using performance measures and MQOs in routine quality control planning and analysis, (2) field and laboratory methods f...

Water quality indices use biological, chemical, and physical data and information to classify the condition of surface waters, ultimately contributing to their management. We used multicollinearity and principal components analyses to develop the Revised Iranian Water Quality Index (RIWQI) as an indicator of agricultural and urban effects in the Ka...

The most robust approach to ecological monitoring and assessment is the use of regionally calibrated indicators. These should be calculated based on collocated biological (response) and physicochemical (stressor) variables and an objective rating and scoring system. In developing countries, a frequent lack of financial and technical resources for m...

The study of community structure changes in relation to environmental gradients can help assessing and predicting community response to anthropogenic disturbances; however, such types of studies are rare in semi-arid regions. This study aimed at investigating the macroinvertebrate community composition in response to environmental variables in rive...

A physical, chemical and biological characterization of river systems is needed to evaluate their ecological quality and support restoration programs. Herein, we describe an approach using water chemistry, physical structure and land use for identification of a disturbance gradient existing in the Karun River Basin. For this purpose, at each site,...

Biological nomenclature is the entry point to a wealth of information related to or associated with living entities. When applied accurately and consistently, communication between and among researchers and investigators is enhanced, leading to advancements in understanding and progress in research programs. Based on freshwater benthic macroinverte...

Biological nomenclature is the entry point to a wealth of information related to or associated with living entities. When applied accurately and consistently, communication between and among researchers and investigators is enhanced, leading to advancements in understanding and progress in research programs. Based on freshwater benthic macroinverte...

Foreword The diffuse nature of nonpoint sources and the variety of pollutants generated by them create a challenge for their effective control requiring a systematic approach based on assessment, planning, implementation, and evaluation. Monitoring is an important component in all four of these activities. While substantial progress has been made s...

The Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality (WYDEQ) initiated development of regionally-calibrated biological criteria for assessing the ecological condition of streams across the state. They intend to use the biological criteria to evaluate the overall ecological condition of their streams and watersheds, and to justify listing and delisting s...

Several biochemical and physical factors regulate phytoplankton primary productivity and algal bloom events in estuarine environments. Some of the most important factors include nitrogen, phosphorus and silica availability, light availability, and estuarine flushing potential. A better understanding of these processes is necessary to support sound...

We read with great interest the correspondence article entitled “Taxonomic certification versus the scientific method” (Rogers 2012), and, as members of the Taxonomic Certification Committee of the Society for Freshwater Science (formerly, the North American Benthological Society [NABS, 1975–2011]) (SFS-TCC 2012), we agreed to respond in a construc...

Accurate taxonomic identification is an important but often overlooked component of biological assessments. The evaluation of taxonomic data quality is gaining acceptance in laboratory-identified biological indicators, such as algae and benthic macroinvertebrates; however, field-based taxonomy, often associated with studies of fishes, presents uniq...

Many organizations in the USA collect aquatic bioassessment data using different sampling and analysis methods, most of which have unknown performance in terms of data quality produced. Thus, the comparability of bioassessments produced by different organizations is often unknown, ultimately affecting our ability to make comprehensive assessments o...

There is increasing international interest by water resource management agencies worldwide in developing the capacity for quantitative bioassessments of boatable rivers. This interest stems from legal mandates requiring assessments, plus growing recognition of the threats to such systems from multiple and co-varying stressors (e.g. chemical polluta...

Development of collaborative biological monitoring and assessment efforts among countries and regions of Asia is of highest priority. The United States (U.S.), Europe, Australia, and many countries of Latin America have established bioassessment protocols and share technology and data. However, many Asian countries have only begun to plan toward si...

The types and quality of data needed to determine relationships between chronic whole effluent toxicity (WET) test results and in-stream biological condition were evaluated using information collected over a 1.5-y period from 6 different sites across the United States. A data-quality-objectives approach was used that included several proposed measu...

The multihabitat approach to sampling for bioassessment is not a new concept, but has been described in detail in the USEPA Rapid Bioassessment Protocols (Barbour et al., 1999) and the AQEM project of the European Union (Hering et al., 2004). Although there are variations on this technique, the basic approach is to sample the major aquatic habitats...

Changes in land use / land cover have been repeatedly shown to be strongly associated with overall ecological degradation of streams. As natural areas are developed, there is a resulting change in the hydrologic characteristics. The development activities that alter natural ecosystem structure and function are considered stressors of that ecosystem...

As human disturbance increases in watersheds there is a resulting change in hydrologic stability that leads to alterations of in-stream habitat conditions. These in-stream alterations are called stressors because they represent sub-optimal to lethal conditions for aquatic organisms. The linkages and mechanisms that relate multiple stressors with co...

Laboratory benthic macroinvertebrate sample processing is an important yet time-consuming aspect of biological assessments. Using a 30-grid square Caton sorting tray, many protocols specify that grids are selected and organisms picked until the target number is reached. We evaluated level of effort expenditures for 5 different county, state, and na...

Montana's Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) has collected macroinvertebrate data for twenty years. During this time, sampling methods and mesh sizes have been modified, though the effects of the modifications on the samples collected have not been studied. DEQ has used and continues to use both 500 and 1200 ìm mesh sizes. The purpose of th...

There are several benthic macroinvertebrate sampling techniques currently being used by the Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) that evaluate instream water resource quality. A traveling kick or a jab with a D-frame net collects most samples. DEQ monitors a smaller proportion of sites using Hess Samplers. Also used in the state are th...

This paper presents the approach used in the technical development of assemblage-level biological indicators in two widely disjunct areas of the United States (the ecoregions of Wyoming, and the Chattooga River Watershed in Georgia), and how they have been, or will be, used. The State of Wyoming has been sampling benthic macroinvertebrate, physical...

Most of the many bioassessment methods currently in use in the United States produce data of unknown quality. The results are: 1) uncertainty as to which methods yield accurate information for a given type of site, and 2) missed opportunities to share data among different programs or organizations having potentially comparable methods and data qual...

The goal of this document is to help states develop and use biocriteria for streams and small rivers. The document includes a general strategy for biocriteria development, identifies steps in the process, and provides technical guidance on how to complete each step, using the experience and knowledge of existing state, regional, and national surfac...

Austrolichas monteithi, gen. et sp. n., is described from tropical North Queensland. The genus is placed in the subfamily Cladotominae, and comparisons are made with other cladotomine genera. The presumed larva of A. monteithi is described; it shares unique features of the abdominal apex with the cladotomine genus Paralichas White.

The proximity of the Upper Etowah River watershed to such a vast urban and urbanizing area (Atlanta, Georgia) makes proactive watershed management essential because there is critical need to balance water and wastewater demands with efforts to maintain and enhance overall ecological conditions. The monitoring program is intended to be comprehensive...