Quality assurance: a vital need in ecological monitoring

Do Different Teams Produce Different Results in Long-Term Lichen Biomonitoring?

Lichen biomonitoring programs focus on temporal variations in epiphytic lichen communities in relation to the effects of atmospheric pollution. As repeated surveys are planned at medium to long term intervals, the alternation of different operators is often possible. This involves the need to consider the effect of non-sampling errors (e.g., observer errors). Here we relate the trends of lichen communities in repeated surveys with the contribution of different teams of specialists involved in sampling. For this reason, lichen diversity data collected in Italy within several ongoing biomonitoring programs have been considered. The variations of components of gamma diversity between the surveys have been related to the composition of the teams of operators. As a major result, the composition of the teams significantly affected data comparability: Similarity (S), Species Replacement (R), and Richness Difference (D) showed significant differences between “same” and “partially” versus “different” teams, with characteristics trends over time. The results suggest a more careful interpretation of temporal variations in biomonitoring studies.

Quality control in bio-monitoring networks, Spanish Aerobiology Network

Several of the airborne biological particles, such as pollen grains and fungal spores, are known to generate human health problems including allergies and infections. A number of aerobiologists have focused their research on these airborne particles. The Spanish Aerobiology Network (REA) was set up in 1992, and since then dozens of research groups have worked on a range of related topics, including the standardization of study methods and the quality control of data generated by this network. In 2010, the REA started work on an inter-laboratory survey for proficiency testing purposes. The main goal of the study reported in the present paper was to determine the performance of technicians in the REA network using an analytical method that could be implemented by other bio-monitoring networks worldwide. The results recorded by each technician were compared with the scores obtained for a bounded mean of all results. The performance of each technician was expressed in terms of the relative error made in counting each of several pollen types. The method developed and implemented here proved appropriate for proficiency testing in interlaboratory studies involving bio-monitoring networks, and enabled the source of data quality problems to be pinpointed. The test revealed a variation coefficient of 10%. The relative error was significant for 3.5% of observations. In overall terms, the REA staff performed well, in accordance with the REA Management and Quality Manual. These findings serve to guarantee the quality of the data obtained, which can reliably be used for research purposes and published in the media in order to help prevent pollen-related health problems.