Preface: Use of algae for monitoring rivers

Abstract

on sharing experiences in the use of algae to monitor river water quality.The Luxembourg symposium provided the opportunity to present new approaches and innovative methods in bioindication and use of various algal groups in water quality monitoring in different types of water bodies. The symposium also focused on uncovering the major gaps and uncertainties in existing methods or recent adaptations, as well as experiences with the application of these methods and intercalibration exercises.During the symposium, invited speakers had the opportunity to present their research activities and results in plenary sessions. The main sessions focused on the following topics: algal ecology, toxicology (including cyanotoxins), river phytoplankton and phytobenthos monitoring, implementation of the Water Framework Directive (WFD), water quality monitoring in different countries. This 7th Symposium gathered about 80 participants and included 87 contributions (6 keynote conferences, 26 oral presentations and 55 poster presentations), submitted by researchers from 34 countries around the world:

Impact of Drought on Diatom Communities and the Consequences for the use of Diatom Index Values in the River Maureillas (Pyrénées‐Orientales, France)

“…Around the world, bio‐indication tools have been developed to monitor the ecological and chemical health of aquatic ecosystems (e.g. Empain, ; Haury et al ., ; Coste et al ., ; Demars et al ., ; Ector et al ., ; Matono et al ., ), but none has been specifically designed for non‐permanent streams. For instance in France, the Biological Diatom Index (BDI), based on ecological profiles of diatoms (Coste et al ., ), is used in combination with other indices based on macroinvertebrates, fishes or macrophytes.…”