• Dr. Suzanne Bayley
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  • Rebecca Rooney, Research Associate
  • Chris Carli, MSc Student
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  • Andrew Forrest, MSc Student
  • Danielle Cobbaert, PhD Student
  • Dustin Raab, MSc Student
  • Marsha Trites, PhD Student
  • Ceitlynn Epners, MSc Student
  • Matt Wilson, MSc Student

For my master’s research, I am developing a tool, called an Index of Biotic Integrity, which will evaluate the ecological health of wetlands by measuring how biological indicators, birds, submersed aquatic vegetation, and marsh vegetation respond to environmental disturbance.  I have 104 study sites located in Central Alberta, which include natural reference wetlands within provincial and national parks, natural and restored wetlands on agricultural fields or pastures, and various types of stormwater management ponds located in Edmonton and Strathcona County. 

Approximately 64% of wetlands in Alberta have already been destroyed or altered by human disturbance, and it is essential to develop tools that will manage and monitor the remaining wetlands effectively. Wetland health can be assessed using metrics or attributes of biological indicators.  A widely accepted and applied assessment tool, called an Index of Biotic Integrity, or IBI, quantifies ecosystem health by using sensitive biological metrics that respond to ecosystem and habitat disturbance.  We are currently developing a wetland IBI for 54 wetlands sampled in 2008 and 2009 for three different indicator taxa: marsh vegetation, submersed aquatic vegetation, and wetland birds. Each IBI will be developed using sensitive metrics that have linear and threshold responses to a environmental gradient of disturbance (R²–value > 0.275).  The metrics will then be combined to provide a single numerical health score from which its overall wetland condition can be evaluated. We will also combine the most sensitive indicator metrics from each taxonomic indicator to create an integrated multi-taxa IBI.  The regional applicability of each IBI will be validated by testing it on an independent suite of 27 wetlands sampled over the same time span. By contrasting individual IBIs, we will be able to calculate which IBI is most sensitive to disturbance and determine whether an integrated multi-taxa IBI is better at predicting wetland health than individual IBIs developed for single indicators.