scholarly journals Linkages between Macrophyte Functional Traits and Water Quality: Insights from a Study in Freshwater Lakes of Greece

Water ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 1047 ◽  
Author(s):  
Konstantinos Stefanidis ◽  
Eva Papastergiadou
Keyword(s):  
Water Quality ◽  
Cluster Analysis ◽  
Functional Traits ◽  
Environmental Gradients ◽  
Hierarchical Cluster ◽  
Environmental Drivers ◽  
Secchi Disk ◽  
Secchi Disk Depth ◽  
Freshwater Lakes ◽  
Functional Characteristics

Freshwater ecologists have shown increased interest in assessing biotic responses to environmental change using functional community characteristics. With this article, we investigate the potential of using functional traits of the aquatic plants to assess eutrophication in freshwater lakes. To this end we collected macrophyte and physicochemical data from thirteen lakes in Greece and we applied a trait-based analysis to first identify discrete groups of macrophytes that share common functional traits and then to assess preliminary responses of these groups to water quality gradients. We allocated 11 traits that cover mostly growth form and morphological characteristics to a total of 33 macrophyte species. RLQ and fourth corner analysis were employed to explore potential relationships between species, trait composition and environmental gradients. In addition, a hierarchical cluster analysis was conducted to discriminate groups of plants that share common trait characteristics and then the position of the groups along the environmental gradients was assessed. The results showed total phosphorus, chlorophyll-a, conductivity, pH and Secchi disk depth as main drivers of the environmental gradients. Hierarchical cluster analysis showed a clear separation of macrophyte assemblages with discrete functional characteristics that appeared to associate with different environmental drivers. Thus, rooted submerged plants were related with higher Secchi disk depth, conductivity and alkalinity whereas rooted floating-leaved plants showed a preference for enriched waters with phosphorus and nitrogen. In addition, free-floating plants were related positively with nitrogen and increased pH. Although we did not identify specific trait patterns with environmental drivers, our findings indicate a differentiation of macrophytes based on their functional characteristics along water quality gradients. Overall, the presented results are encouraging for conducting future monitoring studies in lakes focused on the functional plant trait composition, as expanding the current approach to additional lakes and using quantifiable functional characteristics will provide more insight about the potential of trait-based approaches as ecological assessment systems.

scholarly journals Long-Term Change of the Secchi Disk Depth in Lake Maninjau, Indonesia Shown by Landsat TM and ETM+ Data

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (23) ◽  
pp. 2875
Author(s):  
Fajar Setiawan ◽  
Bunkei Matsushita ◽  
Rossi Hamzah ◽  
Dalin Jiang ◽  
Takehiko Fukushima
Keyword(s):  
Water Quality ◽  
Lake Management ◽  
Landsat Tm ◽  
Quality Data ◽  
Atmospheric Effects ◽  
Secchi Disk ◽  
Secchi Disk Depth ◽  
Water Quality Data ◽  
Using Data

Most of the lakes in Indonesia are facing environmental problems such as eutrophication, sedimentation, and depletion of dissolved oxygen. The water quality data for supporting lake management in Indonesia are very limited due to financial constraints. To address this issue, satellite data are often used to retrieve water quality data. Here, we developed an empirical model for estimating the Secchi disk depth (SD) from Landsat TM/ETM+ data by using data collected from nine Indonesian lakes/reservoirs (SD values 0.5–18.6 m). We made two efforts to improve the robustness of the developed model. First, we carried out an image preprocessing series of steps (i.e., removing contaminated water pixels, filtering images, and mitigating atmospheric effects) before the Landsat data were used. Second, we selected two band ratios (blue/green and red/green) as SD predictors; these differ from previous studies’ recommendation. The validation results demonstrated that the developed model can retrieve SD values with an R2 of 0.60 and the root mean square error of 1.01 m in Lake Maninjau, Indonesia (SD values ranged from 0.5 to 5.8 m, n = 74). We then applied the developed model to 230 scenes of preprocessed Landsat TM/ETM+ images to generate a long-term SD database for Lake Maninjau during 1987–2018. The visual comparison of the in situ-measured and satellite estimated SD values, as well as several events (e.g., algal bloom, water gate open, and fish culture), showed that the Landsat-based SD estimations well captured the change tendency of water transparency in Lake Maninjau, and these estimations will thus provide useful data for lake managers and policy-makers.

scholarly journals The taxonomic and functional biogeographies of phytoplankton and zooplankton communities across boreal lakes

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicolas F. St-Gelais ◽  
Richard J. Vogt ◽  
Paul A. del Giorgio ◽  
Beatrix E. Beisner
Keyword(s):  
Water Quality ◽  
Functional Traits ◽  
Trophic Interactions ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Dispersal Limitation ◽  
Fish Predation ◽  
Functional Trait ◽  
Boreal Lakes ◽  
Environmental Drivers ◽  
Biogeographical Distribution

AbstractStrong trophic interactions link primary producers (phytoplankton) and consumers (zooplankton) in lakes. However, the influence of such interactions on the biogeographical distribution of the taxa and functional traits of planktonic organisms in lakes has never been explicitly tested. To better understand the spatial distribution of these two major aquatic groups, we related the distributions of their taxa and functional traits across boreal lakes (104 for zooplankton and 48 for phytoplankton) to a common suite of environmental and spatial factors. We directly tested the degree of coupling in their taxonomic and functional distributions across the subset of common lakes. Phytoplankton functional composition responded mainly to properties related to water quality, while zooplankton composition responded more strongly to lake morphometry. Overall, the spatial distributions of phytoplankton and zooplankton were coupled at taxonomic and functional levels but after controlling for the effect of environmental drivers (water quality and morphometry) and dispersal limitation, no residual coupling could be attributed to trophic interactions. The lack of support for the role of trophic interactions as a driver coupling the distribution of plankton communities across boreal lakes indicates that taxon-specific and functional trait driven ecological interactions may not modulate large-scale spatial patterns of phytoplankton and zooplankton in a coordinated way. Our results point to community structuring forces beyond the phytoplankton-zooplankton trophic coupling itself, and which are specific to each trophic level: fish predation for zooplankton and resources for phytoplankton.

scholarly journals Development of a groundwater quality index: GWQI, for the aquifers of the state of Bahia, Brazil using multivariable analyses

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
José Barbosa Filho ◽  
Iara Brandão de Oliveira
Keyword(s):  
Water Quality ◽  
Cluster Analysis ◽  
Groundwater Quality ◽  
Hierarchical Cluster Analysis ◽  
Quality Index ◽  
Hierarchical Cluster ◽  
The State ◽  
Groundwater Quality Index ◽  
Multivariable Analyses

AbstractThis work elaborated a groundwater quality index—GWQI, for the aquifers of the state of Bahia, Brazil, using multivariable analyses. Data from 600 wells located in the four hydrogeological domains: sedimentary, crystalline, karstic, and metasedimentary, were subjected to exploratory statistical analysis, and 22 out of 26 parameters were subjected to multivariable analysis using Statistica (Version 7.0). From the PCA, 5 factors were sufficient to participate in the index, due to sufficient explanation of the cumulative variance. The matrix of factorial loads (for 1–5 factors) indicated 9 parameters related to water quality and 4 hydrological, with factor loads above ± 0.50, to be part of the hierarchical cluster analysis. The dendrogram allowed to choose the 5 parameters related to groundwater quality, to participate in the GWQI (hardness, total residue, sulphate, fluoride and iron). From the multivariable analyses, three parameters from a previous index—NGWQI, were not selected for the GWQI: chloride (belongs to the hardness hierarchical group); pH (insignificant factor load); and nitrate (significant factor load only for 6 factors), also, not a regionalized variable. From the set of communality values (5 factors), the degree of relevance of each parameter was extracted. Based on these values, were determined the relative weights (wi) for the parameters. Using similar WQI-NSF formulation, a product of quality grades raised to a power, which is the weight of importance of each variable, the GWQI values were calculated. Spatialization of 1369 GWQI values, with the respective colors, on the map of the state of Bahia, revealed good correlation between the groundwater quality and the index quality classification. According to the literature on water quality indexing, the GWQI developed here, using emerging technologies, is a mathematical tool developed as specific index, as it was derived using limits for drinking water. This new index was tailored to represent the quality of the groundwater of the four hydrogeological domains of the state of Bahia. Although it has a regionalized application, its development, using, factor analysis, principal component analysis, and hierarchical cluster analysis, participates of the new trend for WQI development, which uses rational, rather than subjective assessment. The GWQI is a successful index due to its ability to represent the groundwater quality of the state of Bahia, using a single mathematical formulation, the same five parameters, and unique weight for each parameter.

scholarly journals Freshwater microbial taxa as indicators of anthropogenic impact on the freshwater lakes of Buryatia

2021 ◽  
Vol 908 (1) ◽  
pp. 012003
Author(s):  
S V Zaitseva ◽  
O P Dagurova
Keyword(s):  
Water Quality ◽  
Anthropogenic Impact ◽  
Baikal Region ◽  
Environmental Gradients ◽  
Structural Features ◽  
Anthropogenic Pressure ◽  
Nutrient Loads ◽  
Freshwater Lakes ◽  
High Productivity ◽  
Water Quality Deterioration

Abstract Three large freshwater lakes located in the Baikal region (Gusinoye, Shchuchye, and Kotokel) with high touristic significance were studied. Increased anthropogenic pressure is one of the most important causes of water quality deterioration (in particular, high solute and nutrient loads, high productivity). The structural features of microbial communities associated with an increased anthropogenic load have been revealed in different environmental gradients. It was shown that the genera Rhodobacter, Polynucleobacter, and Luteolibacter preferred environments with a higher trophic level and are indicators of possible anthropogenic impact.

scholarly journals Optical Water Type Guided Approach to Estimate Optical Water Quality Parameters

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 931 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristi Uudeberg ◽  
Age Aavaste ◽  
Kerttu-Liis Kõks ◽  
Ave Ansper ◽  
Mirjam Uusõue ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Quality ◽  
Quality Parameters ◽  
Water Quality Parameters ◽  
Water Quality Parameter ◽  
Water Type ◽  
Secchi Disk ◽  
Secchi Disk Depth ◽  
Chl A ◽  
Monitoring Programs

Currently, water monitoring programs are mainly based on in situ measurements; however, this approach is time-consuming, expensive, and may not reflect the status of the whole water body. The availability of Multispectral Imager (MSI) and Ocean and Land Colour Instrument (OLCI) free data with high spectral, spatial, and temporal resolution has increased the potential of adding remote sensing techniques into monitoring programs, leading to improvement of the quality of monitoring water. This study introduced an optical water type guided approach for boreal regions inland and coastal waters to estimate optical water quality parameters, such as the concentration of chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) and total suspended matter (TSM), the absorption coefficient of coloured dissolved organic matter at a wavelength of 442 nm (aCDOM(442)), and the Secchi disk depth, from hyperspectral, OLCI, and MSI reflectance data. This study was based on data from 51 Estonian and Finnish lakes and from the Baltic Sea coastal area, which altogether were used in 415 in situ measurement stations and covered a wide range of optical water quality parameters (Chl-a: 0.5–215.2 mg·m−3; TSM: 0.6–46.0 mg·L−1; aCDOM(442): 0.4–43.7 m−1; and Secchi disk depth: 0.2–12.2 m). For retrieving optical water quality parameters from reflectance spectra, we tested 132 empirical algorithms. The study results describe the best algorithm for each optical water type for each spectral range and for each optical water quality parameter. The correlation was high, from 0.87 up to 0.93, between the in situ measured optical water quality parameters and the parameters predicted by the optical water type guided approach.

scholarly journals Water quality in the Knysna estuary

Koedoe ◽  
1996 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
I.A. Russell
Keyword(s):  
Water Quality ◽  
Suspended Solids ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Total Suspended Solids ◽  
Published Data ◽  
Secchi Disk ◽  
Secchi Disk Depth ◽  
Long Term Changes ◽  
Remedial Actions

Measurements of water temperature, salinity, pH, dissolved oxygen, secchi disk depth, turbidity and total suspended solids were taken monthly in the Knysna estuary between 1991 and 1994. Measurements of turbidity and total suspended solids of waters entering the Knysna estuary via rivers and man-made inlets were also taken on an ad hoc basis. These results are described and compared to published data on past water quality conditions. No clear long-term changes in water quality in the estuary were evident. High inputs of sediments from minor catchments indicate the necessity for remedial actions.

scholarly journals How Do Soil Resources Affect Herbivory in Tropical Plants Along Environmental Gradients? A Test Using Contrasting Congeneric Species

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victor Diniz Pinto ◽  
Clara Cruz Vidart Badia ◽  
Glória Ramos Soares ◽  
Hildeberto Caldas Sousa ◽  
Tatiana Cornelissen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Functional Traits ◽  
Environmental Gradients ◽  
Stress Gradient ◽  
Soil Nutrient ◽  
Life Forms ◽  
Functional Characteristics ◽  
Tropical Plants ◽  
Eastern Brazil ◽  
Leaf Density ◽  
Doce River

Abstract Plants adapted to different habitats exhibit differences in functional traits and these characteristics are influenced by soil properties. We tested the hypothesis that soil resource availability influences the functional traits of plants, affecting therefore herbivory levels. We examined three Byrsonima plant species with different life forms that occurred across a distinct edaphic habitat along the Doce River Basin, South-eastern Brazil. We characterize habitats according to soil nutrient concentration and measured functional characteristics of crown architecture, leaf nutrients, sclerophylly, leaf area and leaf density. In addition, we evaluated how these variables influenced herbivory levels of congeneric plants. Our data have shown that species along a gradient of soil nutrients have functional characteristics influenced by habitat, which in turn affected herbivory levels. By comparing species from different life forms but within the same genus along a stress-gradient of continuous habitats, we described a corresponding gradient of plant functional traits and tissue consumption by herbivorous insects.

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