Tuesday, May 19, 2009: 8:00 AM-10:00 AM
Vandenberg A
Special Session - Causal Assessment – From the General to the Specific using Bioassessment Data I
Most environmental and ecological science is focused on general causal relationships: Does an environmental variable cause an effect of interest? However, in a regulatory or remedial context, the focus is often much more specific: Is a particular stressor a cause of an observed impairment at a single site or a specific set of sites? In the United States, European Union, Australia, and elsewhere, bioassessment programs now use biotic assemblages (i.e., macroinvertebrates, fish or periphyton) to assess the condition or status of streams. If a stream is determined to be impaired, the next logical step toward restoring the stream is to identify the environmental stressor or stressors that are most likely causing the observed impairment. Since the impairment is defined in terms of the biotic assemblages, most approaches to assessing the likely causes would also use assemblage data. We will explore methods for generating general relationships between causes and effects in stream biotic assemblages and possible approaches for using these general relationships to help assess the likely causes of impairment at specific sites.
Moderator:	Michael B. Griffith
8:00 AM	125		Defining and applying Causal Criteria in the environmental sciences Michael J. Stewardson, J. Angus Webb, Richard H. Norris, Susan J. Nichols
8:15 AM	126		The case for causal inference analysis in environmental assessment: Making use of the literature Richard H. Norris, Susan J. Nichols, Michael J. Stewardson, J. Angus Webb, Evan Harrison
8:30 AM	127		Strengthening inferential conclusions on the likelihood of fish using artificial habitat in a reservoir: An analysis using causal criteria Susan J. Nichols, Brendan Ebner, Richard H. Norris, Kevin Frawley
8:45 AM	128		Design of a regional environmental effects framework for watershed assessment Kelly Munkittrick
9:00 AM	129		Getting more out of bioassessment data: Causal inferences from taxon tolerances for individual stressors Bruce C. Chessman
9:15 AM	130		Integrating empirical and observational studies to demonstrate causal relationships between contaminants and benthic community responses: An information-theoretic approach William H. Clements
Sponsor:	Special Sessions

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See more of The NABS 57th Annual Meeting (16-23 May, 2009)