Integrative Evaluation of the Ecological Quality of Metalliferous Streams (Chalkidiki, Macedonia, Hellas)

Abstract

The present study reports on a year-long (November 1997-November 1998) study of water quality in streams of the Olympias and Skouries areas of Chalkidiki (Hellas), subject to past and present mining activities. Benthic macroinvertebrates were collected from 18 sampling sites at five sampling intervals, while several physicochemical parameters of the water (D.O., pH, temperature, nutrients etc.) were also measured. Five European biotic indices and scores and two multivariate statistical methods (CANOCO, FUZZY) were applied to the macroinvertebrate data. The concentration of various trace metals in the water, sediment, fish and crustaceans were also measured. Most sampling stations exhibited a highly diverse macroinvertebrate fauna during the whole year. However, a slight amelioration of water quality was observed during the high-flow period (winter and early spring), regarding diversity of several invertebrate groups, especially pollution-sensitive families, which decreased. The European biotic indices and scores proved to be relatively ineffective in describing water quality and it is suggested that an Hellenic biotic indice or score should be created. The bioaccumulation studies indicated variable effects of trace metals and organic load on macroinvertebrates according to the degree of load.

Quality Characteristics of Surface Waters at Asprolakkas River Basin, N.E. Chalkidiki, Greece

“…On the contrary, concentrations of As in Piavitsa, where there is no mining activity, are approximately twice as much as the concentration in Kokkinolakkas whereas Fe and Pb concentrations do not show a clear trend presenting outliers and a subsequent wide range of values in the three basins. Same differences in water quality from the three basins were also reported in the study by Lazaridou-Dimitriadou et al 2004.…”

Geochemical signature of surface water and stream sediments of a mineralized drainage basin at NE Chalkidiki, Greece: A pre-mining survey

“…Gilg and Frei, 1994;Kalogeropoulos et al, 1989;Kockel et al, 1975;Nebel et al, 1991). From an environmental point of view, Lazaridou-Dimitriadou et al (2004) reported some general water and sediment quality characteristics, but their research focused mainly on the assessment of the applicability of European biotic indices in describing the water quality of streams. Also, a preliminary soil survey was undertaken by Kelepertsis et al (2006) in order to assess the levels of soil contamination in the mining area of Stratoni.…”

Ecological quality of small mountainous Mediterranean streams (river type R-M4) and performance of the European intercalibration metrics

“…Many of the measured environmental variables fluctuated seasonally, as in other small-sized watercourses in continental Greece (Lazaridou-Dimitriadou et al, 2004).…”