Currently, various methods are used to assess anthropogenic changes in the environment, which have a number of drawbacks. A method for assessing anthropogenic impacts on watercourses that uses quantitative patterns of biota response to a multifactorial load is proposed. The main bioindicator of multicomponent impacts is macrozoobenthos. Quantitative effect of interaction of factors is accurately transferred by original isobolic model. The method allows to solve the following problems: to estimate precisely the state of biota, to single out the main limiting factors, to take into account their interaction correctly, as well as to forecast the general effect of impact reduction from the developed nature protection measures. The method has been tested in the study of various technogenic impacts on freshwater reservoirs in Russia.
