https://doi.org/10.1351/goldbook.14482
Any biological species or group of species whose performance, abundance, or population status is used to determine the health of an environment or ecosystem by systematic monitoring of chemical, physiological, or behavioral changes.
Notes:
- Deviation of bioindicator performance indicates some adverse effect. In a wider sense, the number and abundance of different indicator species (biodiversity, species richness) is used to calculate biotic indices.
- Bioindicator is commonly misused as a synonym for the term biomarker. Such use is to be deprecated.