Seasonal variation in benthic macroinvertebrate assemblages and water quality in an Afrotropical river catchment, northeastern Tanzania

Mwaijengo, Grite Nelson; Vanschoenwinkel, Bram; Dube, Trevor; Njau, Karoli N.; Brendonck, Luc

doi:10.1016/j.limno.2020.125780

Cited by 14 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 79 publications

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“…In Eastern and Central Africa, several biological assessment studies have been carried out mainly for scientific purposes. Indices of Biological Integrity (IBI) have been used to describe biological conditions in rivers based on macroinvertebrates (e.g., [ 35 – 44 ], diatoms [ 45 – 47 ], and fish [ 48 ]).…”

Section: Biological Assessment Of Riversmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Biological Assessment and Rehabilitation of the World’s Rivers: An Overview

Feio

Hughes

Callisto

et al. 2021

Water

113

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The biological assessment of rivers i.e., their assessment through use of aquatic assemblages, integrates the effects of multiple-stressors on these systems over time and is essential to evaluate ecosystem condition and establish recovery measures. It has been undertaken in many countries since the 1990s, but not globally. And where national or multi-national monitoring networks have gathered large amounts of data, the poor water body classifications have not necessarily resulted in the rehabilitation of rivers. Thus, here we aimed to identify major gaps in the biological assessment and rehabilitation of rivers worldwide by focusing on the best examples in Asia, Europe, Oceania, and North, Central, and South America. Our study showed that it is not possible so far to draw a world map of the ecological quality of rivers. Biological assessment of rivers and streams is only implemented officially nation-wide and regularly in the European Union, Japan, Republic of Korea, South Africa, and the USA. In Australia, Canada, China, New Zealand, and Singapore it has been implemented officially at the state/province level (in some cases using common protocols) or in major catchments or even only once at the national level to define reference conditions (Australia). In other cases, biological monitoring is driven by a specific problem, impact assessments, water licenses, or the need to rehabilitate a river or a river section (as in Brazil, South Korea, China, Canada, Japan, Australia). In some countries monitoring programs have only been explored by research teams mostly at the catchment or local level (e.g., Brazil, Mexico, Chile, China, India, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam) or implemented by citizen science groups (e.g., Southern Africa, Gambia, East Africa, Australia, Brazil, Canada). The existing large-extent assessments show a striking loss of biodiversity in the last 2–3 decades in Japanese and New Zealand rivers (e.g., 42% and 70% of fish species threatened or endangered, respectively). A poor condition (below Good condition) exists in 25% of South Korean rivers, half of the European water bodies, and 44% of USA rivers, while in Australia 30% of the reaches sampled were significantly impaired in 2006. Regarding river rehabilitation, the greatest implementation has occurred in North America, Australia, Northern Europe, Japan, Singapore, and the Republic of Korea. Most rehabilitation measures have been related to improving water quality and river connectivity for fish or the improvement of riparian vegetation. The limited extent of most rehabilitation measures (i.e., not considering the entire catchment) often constrains the improvement of biological condition. Yet, many rehabilitation projects also lack pre-and/or post-monitoring of ecological condition, which prevents assessing the success and shortcomings of the recovery measures. Economic constraints are the most cited limitation for implementing monitoring programs and rehabilitation actions, followed by technical limitations, limited knowledge of the fauna and flora and their life-history traits (especially in Africa, South America and Mexico), and poor awareness by decision-makers. On the other hand, citizen involvement is recognized as key to the success and sustainability of rehabilitation projects. Thus, establishing rehabilitation needs, defining clear goals, tracking progress towards achieving them, and involving local populations and stakeholders are key recommendations for rehabilitation projects (Table 1). Large-extent and long-term monitoring programs are also essential to provide a realistic overview of the condition of rivers worldwide. Soon, the use of DNA biological samples and eDNA to investigate aquatic diversity could contribute to reducing costs and thus increase monitoring efforts and a more complete assessment of biodiversity. Finally, we propose developing transcontinental teams to elaborate and improve technical guidelines for implementing biological monitoring programs and river rehabilitation and establishing common financial and technical frameworks for managing international catchments. We also recommend providing such expert teams through the United Nations Environment Program to aid the extension of biomonitoring, bioassessment, and river rehabilitation knowledge globally.

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Section: Biological Assessment Of Riversmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Biological Assessment and Rehabilitation of the World’s Rivers: An Overview

Feio

Hughes

Callisto

et al. 2021

Water

113

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The limitation of this paper is that mainly the physical and chemical indices are employed without the biological indices included, thus the water quality assessment parameter types can be more comprehensive with the biological factor included. Indicators such as Escherichia coli and benthic invertebrates will be considered in subsequent studies to comprehensively reflect the ecosystem health and water quality (Arimoro et al, 2015;Mwaijengo et al, 2020). Furthermore, although WQI-integrated assessment method is widely adopted in the water quality assessment research literature around the world, the samples to determine the parameter standard values are mainly from the massive water quality data of domestic rivers in the USA.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessment of urban river water pollution with urbanization in East Africa

Chen

Kimirei

Cheng

et al. 2022

Environ Sci Pollut Res

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Anthropogenic pollution plays an important part in deteriorating the water quality of rivers all over the world, especially in urban areas of Africa where water quality monitoring is still seriously constrained by the limited test facility and capability. In this study, for evaluating the impact of urbanization on the river water quality, we investigated four typical urban rivers of Tanzania through the upper-urban-down gradient assessment approach and analyzed by water quality index (WQI) and statistical methods. The physicochemical indices monitored in these rivers revealed that the contents of those indicators of TN, TP, PO43−, NH4+, CODMn, and NO3− were accumulated significantly in the lower reaches of the cities, which indicated the life-type pollution characteristics in such urban rivers of Africa. The following main conclusions are achieved from this study. The water quality of 30% of the investigated river sections is in the medium to good status based on the subjective WQI with sensory factors included. Moreover, the sections with obvious water quality decline are mainly limited to the river segments within the urban central area, and severe pollution of water bodies is closely related to large cities, indicating an increasing pollution tendency with the quickly growing population. Therefore, to help formulate water pollution control policies in response to the rapid urban expansion in African countries, it is necessary to adopt an economical and feasible method to carry out early monitoring of surface water quality timely.

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“…Furthermore, the abundance observed at station M2 can be explained by the strong presence of the seagrass bed on the banks of the river. Indeed, the vegetation favors the abundance of invertebrates [26][27][28]51]. The low taxonomic richness obtained at station M3 would probably be due to the impact of the industrial activity upstream and the developments (Hydraulics and housing estates) that take place in this station.…”

Section: Benthic Macroinvertebrate Communitymentioning

confidence: 94%

“…The disturbances generated by anthropogenic activities on aquatic ecosystems are directly felt by the biological communities in place [24,25]. These include benthic macroinvertebrates, which are the most commonly used in biomonitoring of these ecosystems today because of their sedentary nature and, above all, their different levels of tolerance to environmental pollution [26][27][28].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Benthic Macroinvertebrate Communities as Indicator of the Water Quality of a Suburban Stream in the Littoral Region of Cameroon

Nyamsi Tchatcho,

Nana,

Koji

et al. 2024

Pollutants

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As bioindicators, benthic macroinvertebrates are often used to assess stream quality. Based on standard hydrobiological study techniques, the physicochemical and biological health status of the Missolé stream was assessed. Waters of the Missolé stream were found to be slightly acidic (pH: 6.23–6.26) and well-oxygenated (O2: 69.80–76.80%), with low values of temperature (T°: 23.60–24° C), turbidity (49.40–88.40 FTU) and mineralized ions (NH4+: 0–1.19 mg/L; NO2-: 0–1.61 mg/L; NO3-: 0.02–6.80 mg/L). Concerning aquatic invertebrate communities, a total of 489 individuals, grouped in two classes, eight orders and 35 families, all belonging to the phylum Arthropoda, were collected and identified. The class of Insecta was the most diversified, with seven orders and 32 families, while that of Crustacea had only one order and three families. Overall, Insecta accounted for 52.35% of the total abundance, and Decapod Crustacea was 47.65%. The three predominant families were Palaemonidae, Dytiscidae and Atyidae. Shannon and Weaver (H’) and Piélou’s evenness (J) indices were high at all stations and showed a slight decrease from upstream to downstream. In the same vein, the Hilsenhoff Biotic Index (HBI) classified the water quality of the Missolé stream as medium. Overall, this suburban aquatic ecosystem offers moderately favorable living conditions for aquatic biota.

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Seasonal variation in benthic macroinvertebrate assemblages and water quality in an Afrotropical river catchment, northeastern Tanzania

Cited by 14 publications

References 79 publications

The Biological Assessment and Rehabilitation of the World’s Rivers: An Overview

The Biological Assessment and Rehabilitation of the World’s Rivers: An Overview

Assessment of urban river water pollution with urbanization in East Africa

Benthic Macroinvertebrate Communities as Indicator of the Water Quality of a Suburban Stream in the Littoral Region of Cameroon

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