The Gradac River is the first larger tributary of the Kolubara River. Situated in hilly and mountainous region, south from the city of Valjevo, with no larger pollution sources and with gorge which is regarded as nature reserve, this carst river could be considered as one of "nearly natural" Serbian watercourses. The aim of this paper is to test ecological status of such "reference watercourse" based on present aquatic macroinvertebrate communities. Macroinvertebrate samples were taken in the May of 2015 at five localities along the Gradac and its branches (the Bukovska and Zabava Rivers). For the ecological status assessment following metrics were applied: Saprobic Index (Zelinka & Marvan; SI), BMWP (Biological Monitoring Working Party) Score, ASPT (Average Score Per Taxon), Number of Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera and Trichoptera (EPT) taxa, Total number of taxa, Participation of Oligochaeta (Tubificidae) in total community (% Oligochaeta), Number of families and Shannon-Wiener's Diversity Index (SWI). A total of 55 aquatic macroinvertebrate taxa were identified. Insects were found to be the most diverse component of recorded fauna. Ephemeroptera were the dominant insect component in terms of diversity (14 taxa) and relative abundance (40% of total community). Values of used indices point to very good (I class) and good (II class) ecological status of the river. This result confirms previous investigations, and supports the fact that the Gradac River is one of a "nearly natural" watercourses in the region. Key words: Saprobic indices, biotic indices, ecological status, reference condition, Gradac River, Serbia СажетакРека Градац је прва већа притока Колубаре и протиче кроз брдско-планински крај јужно од Ваљева (јужна Србија). Захваљујући одсуству значајнијих загађивача и са клисуром која је под заштитом државе као резерват природе, ова крашка река се сматра једним од неколицине сачуваних "скоро природних" водотокова у Србији. Циљ овог рада је да се на основу анализе присутних заједница водених макробескичмењака провери "референтни" статус Градца. У ту сврху у мају 2015. године је узоркована заједница водених макробескичмењака са пет локалитета дуж реке Градац и њене две саставнице (Буковска река и Забава). За оцену еколошког статуса коришћени су следећи показатељи: сапробни индекс по Зелинка-Марвану (Zelinka & Marvan ; SI), BMWP индекс, ASPT индекс, EPT индекс (број таксона група
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