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Emissions of acidifying compounds have decreased over several decades, nevertheless acidification impacts on aquatic ecosystems remains as a regionally important environmental driver resulting in biodiversity loss and impaired function in many lakes and streams.

Many metrics based on macroinvertebrates are currently used to assess the biological impacts of acidification. However, few include measures of community composition, abundance, diversity, and the presence/absence of tolerant/sensitive taxa, and fewer still are calibrated simultaneously for both lentic and lotic waters and across large geographic regions.

Data on water chemistry and benthic macroinvertebrates was extracted from a database compiled by representatives from Norway, Sweden and Finland. Using lake- and stream data on water chemistry and macroinvertebrates from Norway and Sweden, we developed a Nordic …