Distribution of Benthic Fauna in Relation to Environmental Conditions in an Inundated Opencast Sulphur Mine (Piaseczno Reservoir, Southern Poland)

Abstract

Highly specific environmental factors such as the presence of strongly mineralized water, oxygenation of the water down to 10 m, a low trophic status of the water and low organic matter content in the bottom sediments, were found in the studied post-exploitation Lake Piaseczno. Of the 42 macroinvertebrate taxa found, Oligochaeta (Tubificidae) and Chironomidae predominated. Almost exclusively ubiquitous species were found, except for some chironomid taxa recorded for the first time in Poland. The most diversified faunal communities occurred at 1 m water depth whereas the highest densities were found at 5 m. At the deepest points studied only oligochaetes and Chaoborus flavicans were found. There was no correlation between organic matter content and macrofauna densities. Differences in inhabitation at the studied transects could result from various environmental factors such as the degree of macrophyte cover and protection from the wind. Undisturbed transects overgrown by macrophytes had a similar community composition and higher faunal densities than those which were less protected.

Impact of Environmental Conditions on Bottom Oligochaete Communities in Subsidence Ponds (The Silesian Upland, Southern Poland)

“…In comparison to water bodies resulting from mining of sand (DUMNICKA, 1985;KROD-KIEWSKA andMICHALIK-KUCHARZ, 2009), clay (DUMNICKA, 2007) or sulphur (DUMNICKA and GALAS, 2006), the oligochaete fauna in the subsidence ponds of coal mines studied is similar in terms of the richness of species. As a rule not many species represented by ubiquistic taxa occur in such water bodies.…”

Assessment of the restoration measures in a man-made reservoir: do oligochaete communities respond to the improvement of water quality?

“…The present results agree with the general opinion that the oxygen conditions are an important factor in the abundance and composition of oligochaete communities. According to Verdonschot (1996), Collado and Schmelz (2001), and Dumnicka and Galas (2006), a low oxygen concentration and a long period of anoxia cause a decrease both in the number of species and the oligochaete density. In these conditions, the oligochaete communities are restricted to a few taxa adapted to low oxygen concentration.…”

Acoustical estimates of fish and zooplankton distribution in the Piaseczno reservoir, Southern Poland

“…The only species encountered in biological samples ( _ Zurek 2006b) that are known to reflect sound were Chaoborus larvae (Eckmann 1998), so probably this thin layer was made of them. The studies of bottom fauna of lake Piaseczno (Dumnicka and Galas 2006) have shown that Chaoborus flavicans was abundant beginning from the 5 m station and its highest share was found at 10 m (57% of the total benthic Among the second group of targets much stronger scatterers of sound were present, they varied highly in size and were distributed randomly in the water column down to circa 10 m. There is no doubt that this category consisted of fish. The number of fish registered acoustically was too small for analysis in division by transects or different depth layers ( Table 2).…”

“…Complex hydrochemical and hydrobiological studies of the Piaseczno reservoir were carried out during 2000-2003 on the monthly basis. They included water chemistry (Frankiewicz andPucek 2006, _ Zurek 2006a), microbial activity (Mazurkiewicz and Bednarz 2004), sediments (Szarek- Gwiazda et al 2006), phyto-and zooplankton (Bucka and Wilk-Woz´niak 2006;_ Zurek 2006b), benthic fauna (Dumnicka and Galas 2006), and fish (Amirowicz 2004). These studies have shown that hard waters of strong salinity, high concentration of sulphur hydrogen near bottom and toxic effects of heavy metals create very specific conditions, which are unfavorable for biological life.…”