Comparability of river quality assessment using macrophytes: A multi-step procedure to overcome biogeographical differences

Environmental Factors Influencing Macrophytes Assemblages in a Middle-Sized Mediterranean Stream

“…Our study advocates a clear pattern of aquatic macrophyte assemblages in relation to the environmental gradient along the Louros River, as in the case of other Mediterranean rivers (e.g. Manolaki and Papastergiadou, ; Aguiar et al ., ).Bryophytes, such as Cratoneuron filicinum , and hydrophyte species like Potamogeton crispus , Ranunculus trichophyllus and Phragmites australis dominate in a relatively pristine area near by the springs of the river. The preference of aquatic bryophytes for shallow waters with stable substrates is well established (Baattrup‐Pedersen et al ., ; Thiébaut, ).…”

“…Geomorphological characteristics include wetted channel width and riparian zone, water depth, channel shade category (completely exposed, medium‐light, medium, medium‐dark and dark; Aguiar et al ., ), bed stability category and habitat types (pool, riffle, run or slack; Holmes et al ., ). The proportion of three substrate classes was visually assessed: large (cobbles, bedrock and boulders); medium (gravel and pebble); fine (sand, silt and fine particulate organic matter) (Ferreira et al ., ).…”

“…For species identification and nomenclature, different keys were followed as described in Manolaki et al (2011). Considering the floristic groups, the biota material was categorized in the following categories: ALG: algae (filamentous, thallous, epiphytic and epibenthic), PTE: pteridophytes (ferns and horsetails), BRM: bryophytesmosses, BRl: bryophytesliverworts, LIG: Ligneous species (trees and shrubs), PHy: hydrophytic phanerogams, PHe: helophytic phanerogams (emerged), PHg: hygrophilous phanerogams and PHx: others phanerogams (Aguiar et al, 2014).…”

Application of index number theory to the construction of a water quality index: Aggregated nutrient loadings related to the areal extent of hypoxia in the northern Gulf of Mexico

“…Water quality indices have been developed and used to characterize a wide variety of phenomena including drinking water (Beamonte Córdoba et al, 2010), bioassessment (Aguiar et al 2014;Blanchet et al, 2008;Kanno et al, 2010;Stoddard et al, 2008), fresh water habitat (Pinto et al, 2009;Simaika and Samways, 2011), effect of agriculture on stream water (Justus et al, 2010;Shiels, 2010), river water quality (Feio et al, 2009;Navarro-Llácer et al, 2010), ecological condition (Jordan et al, 2010;Marchini et al, 2009;Seilheimer et al, 2009;Tran et al, 2008) and variable reduction for selection of variables to monitor (Kantoussan et al, 2010). A recent survey of approaches for constructing indices (Bierman et al, 2011) cite the techniques of cluster analysis (Hargiss et al, 2008;Khalil et al, 2010;Styers et al, 2010), principal components analysis, factor analysis (Blocksom and Johnson, 2009;Leunda et al, 2009;Liou et al, 2004;Ou et al, 2010;Tran et al, 2010), discriminant analysis (Feio et al, 2009;Kane et al, 2009), and fuzzy logic (Ghosh and Mujumdar, 2010).…”

Preface: plants in hydrosystems: from functional ecology to weed research

“…But plants can also be used to mitigate human impacts, such as the use of constructed macrophyte beds for nutrient removal (Xian et al, 2010). A mechanistic understanding of plant-ecosystem interactions, and how they are perturbed by human disturbances, enables the monitoring of the macrophyte communities and water bodies where they exist, and ultimately provides the clues and tools to protect and rehabilitate aquatic environments and plant populations (Lumbreras et al, 2013;Aguiar et al, 2014). The present volume is a contribution to such understanding of ecological interactions and its applications to freshwater management.…”