A Useful Tool for Assessing Aquatic Ecosystem and Its Future Application in China: Index of Biotic Integrity (IBI)

Worldwidely, index of biotic integrity (IBI) has been considered as a powerful tool for assessing ecosystem health. In China, many researchers have developed some approaches with IBI for some special rivers or lakes. However, there are gaps among them. This study aimed to reduce the gaps and establish a common national tool of China based on IBI for assessing aquatic health. Firstly, we summarized the development, basic methods and application of IBI after reviewing many relevant literatures which have been obtained through Google, Baidu or some databases such as ISI Web of Science (WOS) and China National Knowledge Internet (CNKI). Secondly, by use of VOSviewer, an informetrics software developed by Nees Jan van Eck and Ludo Waltman, main research issues of IBI were classified as basic theory, technical implementation methods, and practical applications. Major achievements of China on these issues were concluded based on the timeline and compared with the representative achievements from contemporaneous international academic circles. The statistics analysis showed that the methods of IBI have been a research hotspot recently in China. However, the basic theoretical research of IBI in China was still deficient and hysteretic. Meanwhile, some new technical proposals and application patterns of IBI should be studied and implemented in China. In particular, it will be the most important objective to establish an aquatic health assessment tool based on IBI in China. It would help aquatic system managers to make suitable decision and conserve aquatic system.