Priority Pollutants in Water and Sediments of a River for Control Basing on Benthic Macroinvertebrate Community Structure

Abstract

Understanding the drivers of macroinvertebrate community structure is fundamental for adequately controlling pollutants and managing ecosystems under global change. In this study, the abundance and diversity of benthic macroinvertebrates, as well as their chemical parameters, were investigated quarterly from August 2014 to April 2015 in four reaches of the Huai River basin (HRB). The self-organizing map (SOM) algorithm and canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) were simultaneously applied to identify the main factors structuring the benthic community. The results showed that the benthic community structure was always dominated by gastropoda and insecta over seasons and presented obvious spatial and temporal heterogeneity along different pollution levels. The insects were always the top contributors to number density of the benthic community, except for the summer, and the biomass was mainly characterized by mollusca in all seasons. Statistical analysis indicated that TN and NH3-N in water, as well as Hg, As, Cd, and Zn in sediments, were the dominant factors structuring the community, which determined the importance of sediment heavy metal concentrations in explaining the benthic community composition in comparison with other factors. These major factors should be given priority in the process of river pollutant control, which might be rated as a promising way to scientifically improve river health management and ecological restoration.

Identifying and Classifying Sites and Macroinvertebrate Taxa into Pollution Categories in an Afrotropic Riverine System: A Multivariate Approach

“…Other authors in Nigeria have reported a similar level of sensitivities in freshwater macroinvertebrates [38,43]. Furthermore, the biomonitoring significance of aquatic insects, such as Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, Trichoptera, and Odonata, have been widely reported by several aquatic scientists globally [26,28,41,44]. Our present study portrays the importance of identifying and categorizing river sites and macroinvertebrate taxa into pollution categories.…”

Heavy Metal Concentration and Pollution Status of Cross River in Afikpo Catchment Area, Ebonyi State, Nigeria

“…WHO (2003) and Zheng et al (2012) also reported that metals can be retained over time in the bottom sediment and afterwards resorbed in the surface water during the re-suspension episode. Furthermore, other studies have also made similar observations that heavy metals concentrations of bottom sediments are usually higher than their surface water counterparts (Eddy et al, 2004;Malik and Maurya, 2015;Liu et al,2019). Heavy metals in sediment may be ingested by benthos (or pelagic organisms when the metals are reabsorbed into the water column) or absorbed by plants and thus enter the food chain where they bioaccumulate (Oboh and Edema, 2007).…”

Lake and River Restoration: Method, Evaluation and Management

“…Understanding the drivers of macroinvertebrate community structure is fundamental for adequately controlling pollutants and managing aquatic ecosystems under global change. Liu et al [14] analysed the characteristics of the environment and macroinvertebrate community in a river basin over time. They have established an approach by which to reveal community-environment relationships and identified priority pollutants that need to be controlled from the perspective of water ecological health protection.…”