Can we use simpler classification and lower cost sampling of indicator species?

What is it about?

In order to find out the environmental value of a piece of land or water we often use the identity of the organisms that are found there to infer something about the quality. For example tiny microscopic organisms called diatoms are used to indicate the acidity of a lake. We might prefer to use diatoms than to directly measure the acidity because the diatoms are present over a longer period of time and can be used to indicate the cumulative quality rather than a single water chemistry based snapshot. The number of samples and expertise needed to determine environmental quality can be very high. We found that lower sampling effort and a simpler classification of diatoms can sometimes be used to more cost-effectively assess environmental quality.

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Why is it important?

Millions of dollars are spent on environmental assessment each year, if we can use smarter sampling and cheaper identification systems we can either perform our current monitoring more cost-effectively and/or expand the number of sites monitored for the same cost.