Assessing the ecological status of a Mediterranean river: benthic invertebrates and diatoms as complementary bioindicators

Pinheiro, Carlos; Oliveira, Uirá; Rodrigues, Tomás; Oliva-Teles, Luís; Vieira, Maria Natividade

doi:10.23818/limn.39.20

Cited by 6 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The disruption of riverine communities can directly translate into socioeconomic impacts driven by negative changes in water services (e.g., purification, storage, provisioning). Adding to the problem is the known difficulty to regulate and restore impacted ecosystems, leading to long-lasting impacts (Pinheiro et al 2020 ). In Europe, the management of aquatic resources and their protection/restoration is mostly addressed through Directive 2000/60/EC, the Water Framework Directive (WFD).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Potential effects of the discharge of wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) effluents in benthic communities: evidence from three distinct WWTP systems

Silva,

Santos,

Vidal

et al. 2024

Environ Sci Pollut Res

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) effluents can be sources of environmental contamination. In this study, we aimed to understand whether effluents of three different WWTPs may have ecological effects in riverine recipient ecosystems. To achieve this, we assessed benthic phytobenthos and macroinvertebrate communities at three different locations relative to the effluent discharge: immediately upstream, immediately downstream and 500-m downstream the effluent discharge. Two approaches were employed: the ecological status classification as defined in the Water Framework Directive (WFD) based on biological indicators; constrained multivariate analysis to disentangle the environmental drivers (physicochemical variables and contaminants, namely metals, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, pharmaceuticals, and personal care products) of ecological changes across the study sites. The results showed inconsistencies between the WFD approach and the multivariate approach, as well as between the responses of macroinvertebrates and diatoms. The WWTP effluents impacted benthic communities in a single case: macroinvertebrates were negatively affected by one of the WWTP effluents, likely by the transported pharmaceuticals (other stressors are essentially homogeneous among sites). Given the findings and the scarcity of consistent evidence on ecological impacts that WWTP effluents may have in recipient ecosystems, further research is needed towards more sustainable regulation and linked environmental protection measures.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Potential effects of the discharge of wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) effluents in benthic communities: evidence from three distinct WWTP systems

Silva,

Santos,

Vidal

et al. 2024

Environ Sci Pollut Res

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In addition, diatoms are considered good indicators of herbicidal compounds toxicity [37,38]. However, despite the extensive study of the herbicidal effect of eucalypt, current information on how this toxicity can affect diatom assemblages inhabiting rivers and streams running through eucalypt plantations is still very scarce (but see [39,40]. Many studies have been conducted on the effects that eucalypt leaves have on invertebrates colonising leaves.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Short-Term Effect of Eucalyptus Leachates on Green Food Webs in Headwaters

González-Paz

Gestido

Delgado

et al. 2022

Water

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Despite the reported allelopathic nature of the Eucalyptus genus, eucalypt leachates have unknown effects on the trophic base of stream green food webs. Eucalypt plantations have increased worldwide, including riparian ecosystems. We aimed to test whether short-term eucalypt leachates might alter water chemistry, periphytic algal biomass and diatoms, and herbivorous invertebrates’ (i.e., scrapers). We studied two oligotrophic and well-preserved headwaters from NW Spain. The experiment followed a before-after control-impact paired (BACIp) design, with weekly sampling before and after eucalypt leaves addition to streams. In the stream with lower discharge, the eucalypt treatments seemed to affect increases in biomass accrual (Chl-a) and diatom assemblages, disfavouring sensitive species (e.g., Eunotia minor and Achnanthidium pyrenaicum). Therefore, the ecological status was reduced from high to good. In the stream with higher discharge, invertebrate assemblages changed with scrapers having their abundances modified in comparison with the control (e.g., Habrophlebia sp. and Elmidae). Results suggest that eucalypt leaves leachates exert toxic effects on periphyton and on diatom and invertebrate assemblages, and this effect might be mediated by discharge. Alterations at the base of stream food webs may compromise their good ecological status. Further studies are necessary to identify whether this toxicity is due to allelopathic processes.

show abstract

“…Nevertheless, the number of benthic macroinvertebrates was vulnerable to changes in environmental characteristics such as river width, depth, sediment type, flow velocity and physical or chemical variables, which could not reflect the actual ecological status of the river. Carlos et al (Pinheiro and Oliveira et al, 2020) evaluated the ecological status of a Mediterranean river through the analysis of benthic diatoms and invertebrate communities, as well as physical, chemical and hydrological morphological parameters, which was more accurate than the single-index and single-population evaluation method. But the evaluation index would be greatly disturbed due to seasons, agricultural pollution and other changing reasons.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluation of River Ecological Status in Plain River Network Area under the Background of Urbanization

Ren

Song

Zhou

2021

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

21 main streams and tributaries of typical rivers in Jiangsu Province were taken as the research objects to evaluate river ecological status under the background of urbanization in this paper. A system of river ecological evaluation indexes and the evaluation model for plain river network area were constructed, including 4 indexes of aquatic environment, natural ecological system, social service function and water management and protection, and 12 pieces of divided criteria. The ecological status of these rivers in Jiangsu Province was evaluated, of which 71.4% were good. Analyzing the impact of urbanization on the ecological condition of rivers, we came to the conclusion that the level of river ecological status is decreasing with the improvement of urbanization level, and put forward that the reference value of the ISC red line of river ecological condition from good to medium in the urbanization plan of ecological river construction is 28%.

show abstract

Assessing the ecological status of a Mediterranean river: benthic invertebrates and diatoms as complementary bioindicators

Cited by 6 publications

References 0 publications

Potential effects of the discharge of wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) effluents in benthic communities: evidence from three distinct WWTP systems

Potential effects of the discharge of wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) effluents in benthic communities: evidence from three distinct WWTP systems

Short-Term Effect of Eucalyptus Leachates on Green Food Webs in Headwaters

Evaluation of River Ecological Status in Plain River Network Area under the Background of Urbanization

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About