Water quality assessment in a shallow lake used for tourism

Abstract The routine evaluation of water quality is limited to lakes with the largest area. In Poland, only lakes with an area exceeding 50 hectares are monitored by the State Environmental Monitoring System. For many local communities, however, small lakes are more important. This applies mainly to areas with a small number of lakes, where even the smallest lakes are used for various purposes. This paper presents the results of phytoplankton analysis in a small and shallow lake used for recreation. The study was conducted at three sites located in different parts of the lake. A total of 122 algae taxa were identified in the phytoplankton, mainly diatoms and green algae. The most constant taxa in the lake were: Stephanodiscus hantzschii, Desmodesmus communis, Pediastrum tetras and Crucigenia tetrapedia. The average phytoplankton biomass was 37 mg l−1. The maximum biomass, almost 140 mg dm−3, was recorded in late July at the site located near the beach. At that time, there was a massive cyanobacterial bloom composed of Microcystis wesenbergii and Aphanizomenon issatschenkoi. Based on these studies, the lake should be classified as hypertrophic with bad ecological status. This lake should not be used for recreational purposes in the current state.

Download Full-text

2008–2017 Bogota River Water Quality Assessment based on the Water Quality Index

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su11061668 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 11 (6) ◽

pp. 1668 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Daissy Milena Díaz-Casallas ◽

Mario Fernando Castro-Fernández ◽

Elvira Bocos ◽

Carlos Enrique Montenegro-Marin ◽

Rubén González Crespo

Keyword(s):

Water Quality ◽

River Basin ◽

Water Quality Index ◽

Quality Index ◽

Wastewater Treatment Plants ◽

Ecological Status ◽

Monitoring And Evaluation ◽

Water Quality Assessment ◽

Sampling Station ◽

Quality Of Water

This article provides a deep analysis of the water quality at the upper basin of the Bogota River (Colombia) between 2008 and 2017. The Water Quality Index has been the indicator employed to determine the ecological status of the river. This index was chosen in order to normalize the analysis, given that it is commonly used by the Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology and Environmental Studies, a government agency of the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development of Colombia, to determine the state of surface effluents. The results obtained were organized in a double-entry matrix in order to relate the variables of the sample period and the sampling station. The research revealed an insufficient quality of water, demonstrating that the high stretch of the Bogota River basin has, in general, regular or acceptable water quality, while only five stations showed an acceptable status. Surprisingly, the stations located close to the wastewater treatment plants of the municipalities of Choconta, Suesca, Gachancipa, and Tocancipa, as well as Rio Negro, have a poor water quality, discharging a high load of contaminants into the river. Although great efforts have been made by Colombian authorities to restore the critical state of the majority of their aquatic ecosystems, recent implementation of policies and instruments have not shown significant achievements yet. For this reason, this study aims to present a powerful decision-tool for the monitoring and evaluation of correction measures implemented on this river basin. The data used in this research were provided by the Regional Autonomous Corporation of Cundinamarca.

Download Full-text

Chemical pollution imposes limitations to the ecological status of European surface waters

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-020-71537-2 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 10 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Leo Posthuma ◽

Michiel C. Zijp ◽

Dick De Zwart ◽

Dik Van de Meent ◽

Lidija Globevnik ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Water Quality ◽

Surface Waters ◽

Water Quality Management ◽

Ecological Status ◽

Water Quality Assessment ◽

Current Approach ◽

Toxicity Tests ◽

Chemical Pollution ◽

Applied Ecology ◽

Good Ecological Status

Abstract Aquatic ecosystems are affected by man-made pressures, often causing combined impacts. The analysis of the impacts of chemical pollution is however commonly separate from that of other pressures and their impacts. This evolved from differences in the data available for applied ecology vis-à-vis applied ecotoxicology, which are field gradients and laboratory toxicity tests, respectively. With this study, we demonstrate that the current approach of chemical impact assessment, consisting of comparing measured concentrations to protective environmental quality standards for individual chemicals, is not optimal. In reply, and preparing for a method that would enable the comprehensive assessment and management of water quality pressures, we evaluate various quantitative chemical pollution pressure metrics for mixtures of chemicals in a case study with 24 priority substances of Europe-wide concern. We demonstrate why current methods are sub-optimal for water quality management prioritization and that chemical pollution currently imposes limitations to the ecological status of European surface waters. We discuss why management efforts may currently fail to restore a good ecological status, given that to date only 0.2% of the compounds in trade are considered in European water quality assessment and management.

Download Full-text

Design Methods for the Development of Wastewater Land Disposal Systems

Water Science & Technology ◽

10.2166/wst.1993.0020 ◽

1993 ◽

Vol 27 (1) ◽

pp. 77-86 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

K. Thoma ◽

P. A. Baker ◽

E. B. Allender

Keyword(s):

Water Quality ◽

Large Scale ◽

Water Quality Management ◽

Water Quality Assessment ◽

System Specification ◽

Wastewater Disposal ◽

North West ◽

Environmental Monitoring System ◽

Land Disposal

Recent changes in legislation governing water quality management of receiving water bodies have led to a reappraisal of wastewater land disposal techniques. However, more stringent regulations have also necessitated the development of a multi-disciplinary planning approach, to ensure that land based wastewater disposal is functionally and environmentally sustainable in the long-term. Of principal concern are the long term impact of nutrients, salt and other potential contaminants on the soils of the receiving site and on downstream water quality. Assessment of hydrological, soil physical and geological characteristics, together with civil construction and service considerations, assist in the determination of receiving-site selection, application area and balance storage volume, irrigation method, environmental monitoring system specification etc. Analysis and interpretation of wastewater and soil chemical characteristics determines the pre-application water treatment required, and aliows long-term monitoring of the effect of wastewater disposal on the receiving-site soils. Two case-studies are presented. One describes the planning and design of a recently commissioned land-disposal system using industrial wastewater from a chemical process plant to irrigate a Eucalypt plantation in western metropolitan Melbourne. The other reports on the on-going assessment and planning of a large-scale land-disposal system proposed to accommodate the treated sewage effluent from a large north-west Victorian regional city.

Download Full-text

Why do phytoplankton species composition and “traditional” water quality parameters indicate different ecological status of a large shallow lake?

Hydrobiologia ◽

10.1007/s10750-010-0414-5 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 660 (1) ◽

pp. 3-15 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Lea Tuvikene ◽

Tiina Nõges ◽

Peeter Nõges

Keyword(s):

Water Quality ◽

Species Composition ◽

Shallow Lake ◽

Ecological Status ◽

Quality Parameters ◽

Water Quality Parameters ◽

Phytoplankton Species ◽

Phytoplankton Species Composition ◽

Large Shallow Lake

Download Full-text

THE MODERN STATUS OF THE VELIKAYA RIVER DELTA ON THE STATE OF PRIMARY PRODUCERS

Environment Technology Resources Proceedings of the International Scientific and Practical Conference ◽

10.17770/etr2019vol1.4086 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 1 ◽

pp. 48

Author(s):

Tatiana Drozdenko ◽

Sergei Mikhalap ◽

Kristina Mikhaylova ◽

Anna Chernova

Keyword(s):

Water Quality ◽

Natural Waters ◽

Ecological Status ◽

Water Quality Assessment ◽

Water Area ◽

Freshwater Ecosystems ◽

The State ◽

River Delta ◽

Primary Producers ◽

Weakly Alkaline

Primary producers are an integral part of freshwater ecosystems. Phytoplankton forms the basis of the trophic pyramid, participates in the formation of water quality and acts as a sensitive indicator of the state of the reservoir. The ability of macrophytes to accumulate mineral and organic substances makes them active participants in the self-purification of natural waters. Higher aquatic plants are characterized by conservatism to short-term changes in the environment, but changes in vegetation over the years may indicate anthropogenic transformation of ecosystems. The contribution to maintaining the stability of the functioning and biodiversity of the ecosystem makes phytoplankton and macrophytes compulsory research objects aimed at studying the state of water bodies. The aim of the work was the study of primary producers as bioindicators of the ecological status of the Velikaya river delta in the summer of 2018. As a result, 127 phytoplankton taxa from 8 phylums were found: Chlorophyta, Bacillariophyta, Cyanobacteria, Euglenophyta, Chrysophyta, Dinophyta, Cryptophyta, Charophyta. The species richness was dominated by the Chlorophyta (42.5%), Bacillariophyta (25.2%), Cyanobacteria (11.1%). According to the ecological and geographical analysis of the delta algaflora, cosmopolitan, freshwater, planktonic forms of microalgae dominate, preferring neutral and weakly alkaline waters. Water quality assessment revealed the beta-mesosaprobic nature of the waters, which indicates moderate pollution of the water area. In the composition of macrophytes, 43 species from 3 phylums were identified: Magnoliophyta, Equisetophyta, Chlorophyta. By species composition, angiosperms dominated (95.3%), of which 46.3% were dicotyledons and 53.7% - monocotyledons. Hygrophytes (34.9%) and hydrophytes (32.6%) prevailed in terms of ecological structure. The leading role in the overgrowing of the delta belonged to high-grass helophytes and rooting hydrophytes with leaves floating on the water. A total of 37 saprobiont flora were found. The total index of saprobity was 277 points.

Download Full-text

Molecular versus morphological data for benthic diatoms biomonitoring in Northern Europe freshwater and consequences for ecological status

Metabarcoding and Metagenomics ◽

10.3897/mbmg.3.34002 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 3 ◽

Cited By ~ 15

Author(s):

Bonnie Bailet ◽

Agnes Bouchez ◽

Alain Franc ◽

Jean-Marc Frigerio ◽

François Keck ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Water Quality ◽

Quality Assessment ◽

Dna Markers ◽

Ecological Status ◽

Water Quality Assessment ◽

Ecological Assessment ◽

Benthic Diatoms ◽

Northern Europe ◽

Dna Metabarcoding ◽

Reference Databases

Diatoms are known to be efficient bioindicators for water quality assessment because of their rapid response to environmental pressures and their omnipresence in water bodies. The identification of benthic diatoms communities in the biofilm, coupled with quality indices such as the Indice de polluosensibilité spécifique (IPS) can be used for biomonitoring purposes in freshwater. However, the morphological identification and counting of diatoms species under the microscope is time-consuming and requires extensive expertise to deal with a constantly evolving taxonomy. In response, a molecular-based and potentially more cost-effective method has been developed, coupling high-throughput sequencing and DNA metabarcoding. The method has already been tested for water quality assessment with diatoms in Central Europe. In this study, we applied both the traditional and molecular methods on 180 biofilms samples from Northern Europe (rivers and lakes of Fennoscandia and Iceland). The DNA metabarcoding data were obtained on two different DNA markers, the 18S-V4 and rbcL barcodes, with the NucleoSpin Soil kit for DNA extraction and sequenced on an Ion Torrent PGM platform. We assessed the ability of the molecular method to produce species inventories, IPS scores and ecological status class comparable to the ones generated by the traditional morphology-based approach. The two methods generated correlated but significantly different IPS scores and ecological status assessment. The observed deviations are explained by presence/absence and abundance discrepancies in the species inventories, mainly due to the incompleteness of the barcodes reference databases, primer bias and strictness of the bioinformatic pipeline. Abundance discrepancies are less common than presence/absence discrepancies but have a greater effect on the ecological assessment. Missing species in the reference databases are mostly acidophilic benthic diatoms species, typical of the low pH waters of Northern Europe. The two different DNA markers also generated significantly different ecological status assessments. The use of the 18S-V4 marker generates more species inventories discrepancies, but achieves an ecological assessment more similar to the traditional morphology-based method. Further development of the metabarcoding method is needed for its use in environmental assessment. For its application in Northern Europe, completion and curation of reference databases are necessary, as well as evaluation of the currently available bioinformatics pipelines. New indices, fitted for environmental biomonitoring, should also be developed directly from molecular data.

Download Full-text

Grazing Potential—A Functional Plankton Food Web Metric for Ecological Water Quality Assessment in Mediterranean Lakes

Water ◽

10.3390/w11061274 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 11 (6) ◽

pp. 1274 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Georgia Stamou ◽

Matina Katsiapi ◽

Maria Moustaka-Gouni ◽

Evangelia Michaloudi

Keyword(s):

Water Quality ◽

Quality Assessment ◽

Secchi Depth ◽

Ecological Status ◽

Fish Predation ◽

Water Quality Assessment ◽

Zooplankton Biomass ◽

Ecological Water Quality

Grazing potential (GP, in % day−1) was estimated for the plankton communities of 13 Greek lakes covering the trophic spectrum, in order to examine its sensitiveness in discriminating different classes of ecological water quality. Lakes with high GP values exhibited high zooplankton biomass dominated by large cladocerans or/and calanoids while lakes with low GP values had increased phytoplankton biomass and/or domination of small-bodied zooplankton indicating intensive fish predation. GP successfully distinguished among ecological water quality classes (estimated using the phytoplankton water quality index PhyCoI) indicating its potential use as a metric for ecological water quality assessment. As a next step, PhyCoI index was modified to include GP as a metric in order to enhance the phytoplankton-based ecological status classification of lakes incorporating zooplankton as a supporting factor. The PhyCoIGP successfully assessed the ecological water quality in accordance with PhyCoI classification whereas it was significantly correlated with the eutrophication proxy TSISD based on Secchi Depth. Thus, we propose to use the modified phytoplankton index PhyCoIGP for monitoring the ecological water quality of lakes.

Download Full-text