{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,8]],"date-time":"2025-12-08T22:27:41Z","timestamp":1765232861976,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":51,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"3","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2020,2,28]],"date-time":"2020-02-28T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1582848000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through the COMPETE - Operational Competitiveness Program and national funds through FCT","award":["PEst-C\/MAR\/LA0015\/2011."],"award-info":[{"award-number":["PEst-C\/MAR\/LA0015\/2011."]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Water"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Citizen science activities, involving local people in volunteer-supported and sustainable monitoring programs, are common. In this context, the objective of the present work was to develop a simple Metric of Aquatic Invertebrates for Volunteers (MAIV), including a user-friendly tool that can be easily accessed by volunteers, and to evaluate the efficiency of a volunteer monitoring program following an audit procedure. To obtain MAIV values, macroinvertebrate communities were reduced to 18 surrogate taxa, which represented an acceptable compromise between simplicity, efficiency, and reproducibility of the data, compared to the regular Water Framework Directive monitoring. When compared to results obtained with the National Classification System of Portugal, MAIV accurately detected moderate, poor, and bad ecological status. Thus, MAIV can be used by volunteers as a complement to the official monitoring program, as well as a prospective early warning tool for local problems related to ecological quality. Volunteers were students supervised by their teachers. Results obtained by volunteers were compared to results obtained by experts on macroinvertebrate identification to measure the efficiency of the procedure, by counting gains and losses on sorting, and identification. Characteristics of groups of volunteers (age and school level) did not influence significantly the efficiency of the procedure, and generally results of volunteers and experts matched.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/w12030654","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2020,3,2]],"date-time":"2020-03-02T07:50:53Z","timestamp":1583135453000},"page":"654","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":14,"title":["Development of a Metric of Aquatic Invertebrates for Volunteers (MAIV): A Simple and Friendly Biotic Metric to Assess Ecological Quality of Streams"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"12","author":[{"given":"Paulo","family":"Pinto","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Instituto de Ci\u00eancias da Terra (ICT), Universidade de \u00c9vora, Largo dos Colegiais, 7000 \u00c9vora, Portugal"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0689-205X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jos\u00e9 Max Barbosa","family":"Oliveira-Junior","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Instituto de Ci\u00eancias e Tecnologia das \u00c1guas (ICTA), Universidade Federal do Oeste do Par\u00e1 (UFOPA), Rua Vera Paz, s\/n (Unidade Tapaj\u00f3s) Bairro Sal\u00e9, Santar\u00e9m, 68040-255 Par\u00e1, Brazil"},{"name":"Centro de Ci\u00eancias do Mar (CCMAR), Universidade do Algarve (UAlg), Campus de Gambelas, 8005-139 Faro, Portugal"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4983-9782","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Francisco","family":"Leit\u00e3o","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Centro de Ci\u00eancias do Mar (CCMAR), Universidade do Algarve (UAlg), Campus de Gambelas, 8005-139 Faro, Portugal"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0482-4309","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Maria M.","family":"Morais","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Instituto de Ci\u00eancias da Terra (ICT), Universidade de \u00c9vora, Largo dos Colegiais, 7000 \u00c9vora, Portugal"}]},{"given":"Luis","family":"Ch\u00edcharo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Centro de Investiga\u00e7\u00e3o Marinha e Ambiental (CIMA), Universidade do Algarve (UAlg), Campus de Gambelas, 8005-139 Faro, Portugal"}]},{"given":"Paula","family":"Vaz","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Ag\u00eancia Portuguesa do Ambiente (APA)-ARH Algarve, Rua do Alportel, no. 10, 2\u00ba, 8000-293 Faro, Portugal"}]},{"given":"Sofia M. A.","family":"Delgado","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Independent environmental consultant, Rua Dr. Eduardo, no. 117, 2205-644 Tramagal, Portugal"}]},{"given":"Catherina","family":"Voreadou","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Natural History Museum of Crete, University of Crete. B.O. Box 2208, 71409 Iraklion, Greece"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5998-4831","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Eduardo A.","family":"Morales","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Instituto de Ci\u00eancias da Terra (ICT), Universidade de \u00c9vora, Largo dos Colegiais, 7000 \u00c9vora, Portugal"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0939-9885","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Maria Alexandra","family":"Teod\u00f3sio","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Centro de Ci\u00eancias do Mar (CCMAR), Universidade do Algarve (UAlg), Campus de Gambelas, 8005-139 Faro, Portugal"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,2,28]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","unstructured":"European Union (2000). 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