Macrophyte and macroinvertebrate patterns in unimpacted mountain rivers of two European ecoregions

Abstract

The aim of the study was to compare the patterns of development of macrophytes and macroinvertebrates in different types of reference mountain rivers. The study is based on reference river sites surveyed throughout the mountains in Poland and Slovakia in two European ecoregions (9-Central Highlands, 10-The Carpathians). A wide range of environmental variables were estimated, including water chemistry, hydromorphology, geology, and the spatial factor. Based on the Jaccard index, macrophyte and macroinvertebrate variation was confirmed between four mountain and upland river types. It was found that the biological diversification is mainly influenced by geological and associated chemical factors. In the case of macroinvertebrates, additionally, the importance of the spatial factor was revealed (difference between ecoregions). Finally, the habitat preferences of various taxa were identified. It was found that extreme mountain conditions can sometimes distort bioindicative response, as was detected in the case of macroinvertebrates in the highest mountain sites. We concluded that consideration of two groups of organisms enables more comprehensive and reliable monitoring than assessment based on a single group, especially when standard bioindicative methods can be distorted by extreme local conditions.

The Macrophyte Index for Rivers (MIR) as an Advantageous Approach to Running Water Assessment in Local Geographical Conditions

“…Based on the macrophyte database, six macrophyte metrics were calculated, namely the MIR [27], IBMR [8], MTR [5], RMNI [21], ITEM [28], and RI [13][14][15]. Five of them were adapted to the requirements of the WFD for evaluation of the ecological status of rivers; the exception is the British MTR, which was developed before the directive was introduced in the year 2000.…”

“…To evaluate ecological status using the MIR index, class boundary values consistent with the five-class scheme of the WFD were derived. The reference values for evaluation have been determined previously and are presented in separate publications [26,27]. A river typology based on macrophytes was proposed by Jusik et al [24].…”

“…The method indicates the ecological status of rivers based on quantitative and qualitative evaluation of freshwater plant species. In more than a decade since its introduction, it has been modified based on the results of research projects [24][25][26][27] and the EU Water Framework Directive intercalibration exercise [28]. Although the MIR method has been in use for over 10 years, its fundamentals have not yet been described in detail in an international scientific journal.…”

Statistical analysis of the water pollution indicators pertaining to treated municipal sewage introduced to the river

“…heavy metals, persistent organic pollutants, potential carcinogens, as well as bacteria, viruses and parasites into the receiver [5][6]. As a result, numerous publications appeared in recent years, aimed at developing the river condition assessment systems [3,[7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16].…”

“…However, as far as the quality assessment of aquatic ecosystems is concerned, the environmental indices systems are increasingly preferred. They enable to evaluate the quality of aquatic environment as a habitat for organismsvarious species of protozoa are commonly used for this purpose [8,[12][13][14][15][16].…”