EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This review is intended to be supplementary and complementary to AETE report 2.1.3  Technical Evaluation on Methods for Benthic Invertebrate Data Analysis and Interpretation (Taylor & Bailey (1997)) which covered basic design and statistical analysis principles but was limited in the literature which was reviewed, and did not consider multivariate approaches to benthic invertebrate data analysis and interpretation in any depth. Little attention was paid to freshwater acidic deposition (“acid rain”) studies or to estuarine or marine pollution studies. A number of powerful new statistical approaches to monitoring of point source pollution impacts have been developed and applied successfully by marine workers, including to mine waste pollution problems.