Biodiversity and Biological Monitoring and Assessment (BBMA)

What is the Biodiversity and Biological Monitoring and Assessment (BBMA) Workstream?

Freshwater biodiversity and biological data and related indicators are key information elements needed for protecting and restoring aquatic ecosystems. However, in many countries biodiversity and biological monitoring programs are not developed, or are not effective, i.e., are not developed sufficiently, or not used for decision-making.

The overarching aim of the Biodiversity and Biological Monitoring and Assessment (BBMA) Workstream is to achieve efficient and comparable biodiversity and biological monitoring and assessment across the globe for inland water biodiversity and ecosystems.

The BBMA workstream aims to:

Establish an inclusive and international collaborative expert network to share their knowledge and experience; and,
Collaborate with monitoring and assessment professionals and practitioners to establish reliable and comparable biodiversity and biological monitoring and assessment dataflows for SDG 6.3.2 (good ambient water quality); and,
Support, facilitate, and promote the establishment of ecologically-relevant and regionally comparable bioassessment guidelines, tools and assessment systems.

Highlights

Policy Brief: Bridging the global data gap by integrating biomonitoring in water quality monitoring

Technical document: Intergrating Bioassessment in the Global Sustainability Agenda

Workstream publications

2025

Biodiversity, WWQA; Monitoring, Biological; workstream, Assessment (BBMA)

Collaborative Feedback: Advancing Bioassessment for Ambient Water Quality Miscellaneous

2025.

Links | BibTeX

2024

Simaika, John P.; Stribling, James; Lento, Jennifer; Bruder, Andreas; Poikane, Sandra; Moretti, Marcelo S.; Rivers-Moore, Nick; Meissner, Kristian; Macadam, Craig R.

Towards harmonized standards for freshwater biodiversity monitoring and biological assessment using benthic macroinvertebrates Journal Article

In: Science of The Total Environment, vol. 918, pp. 170360, 2024, ISSN: 00489697.

Abstract | Links | BibTeX

@article{simaika_towards_2024,

title = {Towards harmonized standards for freshwater biodiversity monitoring and biological assessment using benthic macroinvertebrates},

author = {John P. Simaika and James Stribling and Jennifer Lento and Andreas Bruder and Sandra Poikane and Marcelo S. Moretti and Nick Rivers-Moore and Kristian Meissner and Craig R. Macadam},

url = {https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0048969724004959},

doi = {10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.170360},

issn = {00489697},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-03-01},

urldate = {2025-04-11},

journal = {Science of The Total Environment},

volume = {918},

pages = {170360},

abstract = {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 freshwater assessment programs for both the biological condition (bioassessment) and biodiversity monitoring of freshwater ecosystems using the benthic macroinvertebrate community. To assess the existence of nationally- and regionally- (sub-nationally-) accepted freshwater benthic macroinvertebrate protocols that are put in practice/used in each country, we conducted a survey from November 2022 to May 2023. Responses from 110 respondents based in 67 countries were received. Although the responses varied in their consistency, the responses clearly demonstrated a lack of biodiversity monitoring being done at both national and sub-national levels for lakes, rivers and artificial waterbodies. Programs for bioassessment were more widespread, and in some cases even harmonized among several countries. We identified 20 gaps and challenges, which we classed into five major categories, these being (a) field sampling, (b) sample processing and identification, (c) metrics and indices, (d) assessment, and (e) other gaps and challenges. Above all, we identify the lack of harmonization as one of the most important gaps, hindering efficient collaboration and communication. We identify the IUCN SSC Global Freshwater Macroinvertebrate Sampling Protocols Task Force (GLOSAM) as a means to address the lack of globally-harmonized biodiversity monitoring and biological assessment protocols.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}