Ecological Monitoring Perspectives from Biotesting of Surface Waters: A Study of Pavlovsk Reservoir (Bashkortostan, Russia)

The cost of environmental analysis is becoming astronomically high at the global scale. One of the major trends in the
respective research activities is the development of biotesting methods. Such methods, in addition to ecotoxicology, are highly
demanded for environmental monitoring and ecological standardization. The development of biotesting in toxicology, however, is
limited to the “battery of tests” paradigm, while environmental monitoring and ecological standardization are based on the
“uniformity of measurements” paradigm. A “reference bioindicator” is proposed to harmonize these approaches. A reference
bioindicator serves for comparison of data obtained by different bioindicators. This method was approved for the state environmental
control. Application of reference bioindicators makes analytical procedure substantially cheaper. It requires, however, thorough
calibration in relation to specific environmental factors (such as temperature, photoperiod etc.) as well as to specific active agents and
their combinations. This problem can be solved with the start-up of calibrating analytical centers and long-term study of the effects of
spatiotemporal environmental factors in specific areas and for specific reference objects. This paper demonstrates long-term study
results for the surface waters of Pavlovsk reservoir (Bashkortostan, Russia).