Macrozoobenthos response to environmental degradation in a heavily modified stream: Case study the Upper Elbe River, Czech Republic

Biologia ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 65 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zdeněk Adámek ◽  
Claus Orendt ◽  
Georg Wolfram ◽  
Jan Sychra

AbstractBenthic macroinvertebrates are an important indicator of river health. However, their response upon water quality development downstream the pollution outlets considerably depends on the environmental habitat characteristics. Three successive stretches, each of them providing three different mesohabitats in stillwater (S), torrential (T) and riparian (R) zones were selected for evaluation of the impact of altered metapotamal river bed morphology (channelization) and chemical determinants of water quality on the Upper Elbe River. In downstream direction, the stretches are separated by weirs and characterized as a low polluted low modified natural stream (N), a low polluted channelized stream (C) and a channelized polluted stream (CP). Altogether, 111 benthic macroinvertebrate taxa were recorded in the Pardubice hotspot between Němčice and Přelouč. Despite different levels of stream bed and water quality degradation, micro- and mesohabitat characteristics appeared to be the most important factors determining the diversity of macrozoobenthos in riffle (substrate size structure) and in shoreline (macrophyte community composition and structure) mesohabitats. The diversity of macroinvertebrate communities was highest in riparian mesohabitats compared to stillwater and torrential ones. Saprobic indices increased in downstream direction, thus indicating the decline of water quality.

1990 ◽  
Vol 22 (5) ◽  
pp. 69-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Müller ◽  
V. Kirchesch

The construction of two or three impounding dams in the remaining freely flowing reach (73 km) of the Danube is under discussion. The purpose of these impoundments is to guarantee a minimum navigable depth of 3 m needed for modern cargo ships and to produce electric power. The impact of these developments is discussed on the basis of experience with similar impoundments further upstream and of the results from water quality model calculations. The mathematical model used is of the deterministic type, calculating the growth of slowly-growing organisms (nitrifying bacteria, algae and zooplanktons) according to MONOD and MICHAELIS-MENTEN. Compared with impoundments on other German rivers or the Iron Gate impoundments on the Danube, the effect of the impoundments under discussion on water quality parameters is likely to be fairly small, reflecting the slight changes in morphology which would be necessary for attaining the water depth required. Therefore, the more important effects of these developments would be the changes in the ecologic situation at the river bed and near the banks of the river.


2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saulius Vaikasas ◽  
Nijole Bastiene ◽  
Virginija Pliuraite

The impact of a small hydropower plant (SHP) on river water quality and macroinvertebrates has been investigated in 5 Lithuanian rivers and involved 17 dams of which ten are in a sequence in the same river system. The hydrostatic head of SHP dams ranged from 2.75 to 14.50 m and the capacities of their reservoirs varied from 40×103 to 15,500×103 m3. Physicochemical characteristics, as well as macroinvertebrate communities, were evaluated in sites above and below the SHP dams comparing them with reference sites. It was established that construction of SHP dams (H15 m) in Lithuania substantially changed regimes of suspended solids, fine particles and nutrients only locally regardless of hydrostatic head of the dam. Compared to reference sites, SHP reservoirs and sites below SHP dams had relatively more Chironomidae larvae and Oligochaeta, and less Coleoptera larvae as well as the relative abundance of pollution-sensitive Ephemeroptera and EPT. Water quality according to biotic indexes (DSFI and HBI) in the sites influenced by SHP dams was recognised to be moderate or poor, but impact was only local. This suggests that increment of catchment’s area and intensive land use for agriculture within the river basin plays more important role than SHP dams


Geografie ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 102 (4) ◽  
pp. 241-253
Author(s):  
Jakub Langhammer

As regards the assessment of water quality and its changes (both in cross- and lengthwise-profile), mathematical modelling is a relatively recent method. It is based on simulation of water movement in the river bed and on consequent modelling of diffusion of pollutants. Mathematical modelling enables to calculate a continuous lengthwise-profile of water quality in the water course and to identify the impact of various pollution sources on water quality. It also makes possible to predict water quality changes over the time under changing external conditions.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-28
Author(s):  
Hai Guo ◽  
Yifan Song ◽  
Haoran Tang ◽  
Jingying Zhao

In recent years, lakes pollution has become increasingly serious, so water quality monitoring is becoming increasingly important. The concentration of total organic carbon (TOC) in lakes is an important indicator for monitoring the emission of organic pollutants. Therefore, it is of great significance to determine the TOC concentration in lakes. In this paper, the water quality dataset of the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River is obtained, and then the temperature, transparency, pH value, dissolved oxygen, conductivity, chlorophyll and ammonia nitrogen content are taken as the impact factors, and the stacking of different epochs’ deep neural networks (SDE-DNN) model is constructed to predict the TOC concentration in water. Five deep neural networks and linear regression are integrated into a strong prediction model by the stacking ensemble method. The experimental results show the prediction performance, the Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency coefficient (NSE) is 0.5312, the mean absolute error (MAE) is 0.2108 mg/L, the symmetric mean absolute percentage error (SMAPE) is 43.92%, and the root mean squared error (RMSE) is 0.3064 mg/L. The model has good prediction performance for the TOC concentration in water. Compared with the common machine learning models, traditional ensemble learning models and existing TOC prediction methods, the prediction error of this model is lower, and it is more suitable for predicting the TOC concentration. The model can use a wireless sensor network to obtain water quality data, thus predicting the TOC concentration of lakes in real time, reducing the cost of manual testing, and improving the detection efficiency.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (23) ◽  
pp. 5162 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dong-Kyun Kim ◽  
Hyunbin Jo ◽  
Kiyun Park ◽  
Ihn-Sil Kwak

The study aims to assess the spatial distribution of benthic macroinvertebrate communities in response to the surrounding environmental factors related to land use and water quality. A total of 124 sites were surveyed at the Seomjin River basin in May and September 2017, respectively. We evaluated the abundance and composition of benthic macroinvertebrate communities based on nine subwatersheds. Subsequently, we compared the benthic information with the corresponding land use and water quality. To comprehensively explore the spatiotemporal distinction of benthic macroinvertebrate communities associated with those ambient conditions, we applied canonical correspondence analysis (CCA). The CCA results explicitly accounted for 61% of the explanatory variability; the first axis (45.5%) was related to land-use factors, and the second axis (15.5%) was related to water quality. As a result, the groups of benthic communities were distinctly characterized in relation to these two factors. It was found that land-use information is primarily an efficient proxy of ambient water quality conditions to determine benthic macroinvertebrates, such as Asellus spp., Gammarus spp., and Simulium spp. in a stream ecosystem. We also found that specific benthic families or genera within the same groups (Coleoptera, Diptera, Ephemeroptera, and Trichoptera) are also differentiated from ambient water quality changes as a secondary component. In particular, the latter pattern appeared to be closely associated with the impact of summer rainfall on the benthic community changes. Our study sheds light upon projecting benthic community structure in response to changes of land use and water quality. Finally, we conclude that easily accessible information, such as land-use data, aids in effectively characterizing the distribution of benthic macroinvertebrates, and thus enables us to rapidly assess stream health and integrity.


1984 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 459-473
Author(s):  
T. P. Halappa Gowda ◽  
R. J. Dewey

The Thames River water management study report, prepared in 1975 by the Ontario Ministries of Natural Resources and Environment, recommended the construction of the Glengowan Dam primarily for flow augmentation to improve the river water quality (Recommendation No. 1). As part of the environmental impact assessment of the proposed dam, detailed water quality prediction studies were carried out using deterministic and stochastic models to evaluate the impact of the proposed flow augmentation and wastewater loading options. The river receives treated wastewater effluents from five water pollution control plants (WPCP) in the study area, all located within the City of London. The processes simulated by the models include advection, decay of carbonaceous and nitrogenous oxygen demand (CBOD and NOD), sediment oxygen demand, atmospheric reaeration, and respiration and photosynthetic activity of aquatic macrophyte community. The options modelled include (a) projected CBOD and NOD loading rates from the five WPCP's for the planning period 1981–2001; (b) low flows attainable with augmentation from existing Fanshawe reservoir and the proposed Glengowan Dam; and (c) zero loadings to the Thames River from WPCP's, attainable with effluent bypassing to Lake Erie. The results of the modelling studies are presented in this paper. Key words: water quality, dissolved oxygen, flow augmentation, environmental assessment, Glengowan Dam, Thames River Basin, deterministic model, stochastic model.


2008 ◽  
Vol 65 (6) ◽  
pp. 1206-1216 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon De Sousa ◽  
Bernadette Pinel-Alloul ◽  
Antonia Cattaneo

Previously pristine lakes of the Laurentian region of Quebec, Canada, have faced increasing residential development of their watershed since the 1970s. We tested whether littoral invertebrates respond to this perturbation, even though open-water nutrients and chlorophyll are not yet altered. We examined changes in biomass, size structure, and taxonomic composition of macroinvertebrates living on rocks and sediments in 13 lakes representing a gradient of lakeshore residential development and watershed clearing. Littoral invertebrates provided early indication of lake perturbation, but their response varied according to the substratum. On rocks, total invertebrate biomass increased along the perturbation gradient and size structure shifted towards large organisms. These changes were likely mediated by a concomitant increase in epilithon biomass, suggesting a bottom-up control. No significant change in total biomass and size structure was observed for invertebrates in sediments. In contrast, taxonomic composition changed with lake development in sediments, but not on rocks. Taxonomic shifts were likely related to changes in sediment heterogeneity due to a decline of woody litter and increased fine particle deposition. Oligochaetes were positively associated to perturbation, whereas mayflies were negatively associated; these taxa could be used as indicators. Sediments were a better sentinel substratum than rocks for biomonitoring the impact of lake residential development.


2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 156-164 ◽  
Author(s):  
Senlin Zhu ◽  
Xinzhong Du ◽  
Wenguang Luo

Abstract Water temperature is an important indicator for biodiversity and ecosystem sustainability. In this study, a simplified equilibrium temperature model was incorporated into the CE-QUAL-W2 (W2) model. This model is easy to implement, needing fewer meteorological variables and no parameter calibration. The model performance was evaluated using observed data from four stations on the Lower Minnesota River. Results show that the simplified equilibrium temperature model performed as well as the original equilibrium temperature model and the term-by-term process model for water temperature predictions with the values of the coefficient of determination (R2), Nash–Sutcliffe Efficiency (NSE), and Percent Error (PE) in the accepted range (R2 = 0.974, NSE = 0.972, PE = 1.377%). The impact of the water temperature on carbonaceous biochemical oxygen demand (CBOD) concentrations under three different water temperature models was evaluated, and results show that the monthly averaged CBOD concentrations of the simplified equilibrium temperature model were almost the same as that of the term-by-term approach. For all the four calibration stations, the simplified equilibrium temperature approach performs better than the other two models for dissolved oxygen simulation (R2 = 0.791, NSE = 0.65, PE = 7.596%), which indicates that the simplified equilibrium temperature model can be a potential tool to simulate water temperature for water quality modelling.


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