Northwest Standard Taxonomic Effort

Aquatic ecologists in the Pacific Northwest agree that a regional standard taxonomic effort (STE) agreement would improve our ability to share macroinvertebrate data. Data sharing is constrained in part by lack of agreement as to the authoritative taxonomic nomenclature appropriate for collected specimens and the level of taxonomic resolution that is appropriate for different assessment purposes. Following on work done in other regions, the PNAMP Macroinvertebrate Planning Group is pursuing the development of an STE for the Pacific Northwest. The development of the NWSTE will allow students, laboratories, and researchers to assist in the standardization and harmonization of macroinvertebrate data across the region. The NWSTE targets life stages and taxa known to occur in benthic bioassessment samples of the Pacific Northwest. The NWSTE will improve macroinvertebrate data quality in the region, will evolve to include guidance for life stages and taxa from non-benthically collected samples, and allow for the evolution of invertebrate taxonomic understanding without orphaning historical datasets.