Diatom Taxonomic Composition as a Biological Indicator of the Ecological Health and Status of a River Basin under Agricultural Influence

Lü, Xinxin; Liu, Yan; Fan, Yawen

doi:10.3390/w12072067

Cited by 13 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…Recently, homogenization of diatom communities has also been observed in response to hydrological alterations and urbanization in Mediterranean rivers which also led to significant species loss at both local and regional scales (Falasco et al, 2021a) and a reduced role of diatoms in the total benthic chlorophyll-a (Piano et al, 2016). Moreover, the present study confirmed the high trophic value of some species, mainly collected in the R-C macrotype, such as N. gregaria (Hicks and Taylor, 2019;Hausmann et al, 2016;Szczepocka et al, 2016), Nitzschia palea (Licursi et al, 2016;Szczepocka et al, 2016;Yang et al, 2015), Gomphonema parvulum (Lu et al, 2020;Szczepocka et al, 2016) and C. euglypta (Trábert et al, 2020). S. nigri was confirmed as one of the most tolerant diatom species (see Hausmann et al, 2016 as Eolimna minima;Yang et al, 2015).…”

Section: Diatom Communities and Water Quality In The Two Macrotypessupporting

confidence: 82%

Diatom communities and ecological status classification in the upper Po River basin

et al. 2021

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One of the main challenges in river management is the setting of nutrient thresholds that support good ecological status, which is the main objective to achieve for the European member states. This is a complex process, which needs an accurate analysis of the data collected so far for the ecological classification of rivers belonging to different typologies. We analysed the data of the multiannual monitoring concerning diatoms and nutrients in the upper Po River (NW Italy) with the aim of exploring the response of diatom community in terms of species composition, ecological guilds and indices. We considered data of 390 samples, of which 2/3 belonging to the “Central macrotype” (i.e. lowland stretches) and 1/3 to “Alpine siliceous”. We performed a Principal Coordinate Analysis to detect community patterns with respect to water chemical classification and macrotypes highlighting species and ecological guilds characteristic of samples along a water quality gradient. We then performed a partial RDA to focus on the role of environmental and spatial factors in shaping the diatom community in each of the two macrotypes. Finally, we investigated the concordance between the Italian normative indices ICMi (for diatoms) and LIMECO (a chemical index of water quality). We found significant differences in the diatom communities of the two macrotypes and in their response to water quality and to spatial factors. Communities resulted as much more uniform in sites with a low water quality, with characteristic species such as Navicula gregaria, Nitzschia palea and Sellaphora nigri. On the other hands, moderately disturbed sites (in terms of trophic level) were characterised by the highest guild diversity. The RDA confirmed the importance of spatial factors in shaping the diatom assemblages, especially in Alpine streams where the physical barriers may condition species dispersion. The comparison between the two normative indices highlights that the correspondence in the classification is achieved in the 57% (Alpine macrotype) and 43% (Central macrotype) of samples. According to our findings, we suggest the revision of the ICMi, both class boundaries and reference value. In addition, we recommend to lower LIMECO threshold for total phosphorus: indeed, several studies have shown significant changes in the diatom community composition starting from very low values (below the current LIMECO threshold, i.e. 50 µgL-1). Moreover, the extension of our study to the whole Po River basin will complete our knowledge of species not yet included in the diatom indices and of the community response to nutrient levels also in other macrotypes.

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Section: Diatom Communities and Water Quality In The Two Macrotypessupporting

confidence: 82%

Diatom communities and ecological status classification in the upper Po River basin

et al. 2021

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“…The dominating species in epilithon, Achnanthidium minutissimum, is well-known as a species adapted to a high velocity environment [61], whereas the species that were found in high abundances in the epiphyton community are often found in a high nutrient environment under agricultural influence (e.g., Gomphonema spp. and Encyonema sp., Table S3) [62]. Therefore, differences in species composition of the epiphyton and epilithon support that the epilithon is more dependent on the water-nutrient concentration and hydraulic disturbances, validating the H2 and H3 hypotheses.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 63%

“…3− concentration compared to Lyngbygård [62]. Thus, although the two study streams showed similar land use and catchment size, local differences driven by light, DOC and PO 4 3− were important to site-specific biofilm structure.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 79%

Epiphyton in Agricultural Streams: Structural Control and Comparison to Epilithon

Wijewardene

Giménez-Grau

Holmboe

et al. 2021

Water

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Stream biofilms play an important role in the structure, functioning, and integrity of agricultural streams. In many lowland streams, macrophyte vegetation is abundant and functions as an important substrate for biofilm (epiphyton) in addition to the gravel and stone substrate for epilithon on the stream bed. We expect that reach-scale habitat conditions in streams (e.g., nutrient availability, hydraulic conditions) affect the epiphyton and epilithon biomass and composition, and that this effect will be substrate-specific (macrophytes and stones). The objectives of our study were (i) to describe concurrent changes in epiphyton and epilithon biomass and composition over a year in agricultural streams, and (ii) to determine the substrate specific reach-scale habitat drivers for the epiphyton and epilithon structure. We monitored epiphyton and epilithon biofilm biomass and composition at three-week intervals and reach-scale environmental conditions daily during a year for two agricultural steams. The results showed that epiphyton and epilithon communities differed in biomass, having high substrate specific biomass in epilithon compared to epiphyton. Epiphyton was mainly composed of diatom and green algae, while cyanobacteria were more important in epilithon, and the diatom species composition varied between the two biofilm types. Epiphyton structural properties were less influenced by reach-scale hydrology and nutrient availability compared to epilithon. The overall explanatory power of the measured environmental variables was low, probably due to micro-scale habitat effects and interactive processes within stream biofilms. Knowledge of biofilm control in agricultural streams is important in order to improve management strategies, and future studies should improve the understanding of micro-scale habitat conditions, interactive relationships within biofilms and between the biofilm and the substrates.

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“…exigua, N. menisculus, and N. viridula are distributed in the negative position of axis 2. In terms of ecological affinity, A. exigua is more common in eutrophic polluted waters [88], and N. menisculus is commonly found in freshwaters such as swamps, lakes, and rivers and endures organic pollution with high tolerance to inorganic eutrophication [89], while N. viridula exists in waters with high nitrogen and phosphorus [78] and occurs in eutrophic rivers in China [90]. They all prefer to live in waters with high eutrophication.…”

Section: Pca Results and Ecological Affinity Of Diatomsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Centennial Lake Environmental Evolution Reflected by Diatoms in Yilong Lake, Yunnan Province, China

Huang

Shi

et al. 2023

Applied Sciences

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The 64 cm sediment diatoms, representing a timescale from 1938 to 2020 A.D., were analyzed to reconstruct the evolutionary history of Yilong Lake in Yunnan Province, China. Some main diatoms with important environmental indicating significance were selected through Principal Component Analysis (PCA). In addition, their ecological affinities indicated that the PCA sample scores 1 and 2, which were the main factors affecting the environmental change of Yilong Lake, corresponded to pH value and eutrophication, respectively. According to the pH value and the eutrophication data obtained from the PCA, the lake had successively gone through six major stages. Though high pH value and eutrophication had been the main characteristics for a long time, the quality of Yilong Lake was gradually improved through planned treatment in the last decades. The drying up of the lake under natural conditions resulted in an increase in pH values and high eutrophication. Meanwhile, the impact of human activities played a more important role in lake evolution: unreasonable human development in lake basins led to abnormal changes in pH values and eutrophication, and planned and targeted treatment could restore the natural state of the lake.

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Diatom Taxonomic Composition as a Biological Indicator of the Ecological Health and Status of a River Basin under Agricultural Influence

Cited by 13 publications

References 39 publications

Diatom communities and ecological status classification in the upper Po River basin

Diatom communities and ecological status classification in the upper Po River basin

Epiphyton in Agricultural Streams: Structural Control and Comparison to Epilithon

Centennial Lake Environmental Evolution Reflected by Diatoms in Yilong Lake, Yunnan Province, China

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