Steps towards a more efficient use of chironomids as bioindicators for freshwater bioassessment: Exploiting eDNA and other genetic tools

Chironomids are a formidable indicator taxon, as they are globally ubiquitous, can tolerate a wide range of environmental conditions, and can occur in high numbers in anthropogenically impaired environments where other indicator taxa are not encountered. Biomonitoring is frequently performed through analyzing species composition, abundance and morphology. However, these traditional approaches may be problematic, since indicator taxon morphology...