Do We Need to Use Bats as Bioindicators?

Bats show responses to anthropogenic stressors linked to changes in other ecosystem components such as insects, and as K-selected mammals, exhibit fast population declines. This speciose, widespread mammal group shows an impressive trophic diversity and provides key ecosystem services. For these and other reasons, bats might act as suitable bioindicators in many environmental contexts. However, few studies have explicitly tested this potential, and in some cases, stating that bats are useful bioindicators more closely resembles a slogan to support conservation than a well-grounded piece of scientific evidence. Here, we review the available information and highlight the limitations that arise in using bats as bioindicators. Based on the limited number of studies available, the use of bats as bioindicators is highly promising and warrants further investigation in specific contexts such as river quality, urbanisation, farming practices, forestry, bioaccumulation, and climate change. Whether bats may also serve as surrogate taxa remains a controversial yet highly interesting matter. Some limitations to using bats as bioindicators include taxonomical issues, sampling problems, difficulties in associating responses with specific stressors, and geographically biased or delayed responses. Overall, we urge the scientific community to test bat responses to specific stressors in selected ecosystem types and develop research networks to explore the geographic consistency of such responses. The high cost of sampling equipment (ultrasound detectors) is being greatly reduced by technological advances, and the legal obligation to monitor bat populations already existing in many countries such as those in the EU offers an important opportunity to accomplish two objectives (conservation and bioindication) with one action.

Phytoremediation Strategies for United Kingdom River Health in the Flood of Climate Change

Industrialization and urbanization in the United Kingdom has led to practices that impact the quality of their river systems. In a recent 2020 report, 0% of rivers in England meet the current criteria of ‘good health’. Climate change will increase the frequency of flooding and compound this alarming issue. Phytoremediation is a nature-based strategy that employs the use of plants to uptake waste materials such as heavy metals and antibiotic waste. Here, we recommend UK counties use phytoremediation-based strategies in conjunction with community involvement to improve river quality and make communities around river systems more resilient against the impacts of climate change.

EVALUASI KONDISI KUALITAS AIR BERDASARKAN DAMPAK BEBAN PENCEMARAN TERHADAP SEBARAN OKSIGEN TERLARUT DI SUNGAI GUNUNG PASANG KABUPATEN JEMBER

Gunung Pasang River is as raw water supply for the human activity. However, it is utilized as waste disposal from community activities, agro-tourism, and rubber factories. These activities have the potential to reduce water river quality. The efforts to river pollution prevention that can be taken are to examine for capacity of the rivers to reduce pollutant naturally. The research focused to analysis the pollution load, oxygen dissolved distribution (deoxygenation and reoxygenation rate), and the total pollution load of the Gunung Pasang river utilized the Streeter-Phelps formula. The study was conducted in November – December in 2019 at the Gunung Pasang River with a river length of 300 m which was divided into 3 segments with 4 monitoring points (GP01, GP02, GP03, GP04). Analysis of the parameters i.e. DO and BOD to measure the water quality degradation in the river and the resulting graph of oxygen reduction. The method refers to Minister of the Environment Decree no. 110/2003.The results showed that the average pollution load value was 6.32 kg/day. The range of deoxygenation and reoxygenation rates is 2.67 - 5.36 mg/L.day and 32.77 - 64.71 mg/L.day respectively. The Reoxygenation rate was greater than deoxygenation. This phenomenon reflected that the Gunung Pasang River has a good self – purification performance. The average pollution load capacity of the river is 2.17 kg/day.Keywords: total pollution capacity; oxygen distribution; self – purification; water quality monitoring.

Integrated Modelling to Support Analysis of COVID-19 Impacts on London's Water System and In-river Water Quality

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, citizens of the United Kingdom were required to stay at home for many months in 2020. In the weeks before and months following lockdown, including when it was not being enforced, citizens were advised to stay at home where possible. As a result, in a megacity such as London, where long-distance commuting is common, spatial and temporal changes to patterns of water demand are inevitable. This, in turn, may change where people's waste is treated and ultimately impact the in-river quality of effluent receiving waters. To assess large scale impacts, such as COVID-19, at the city scale, an integrated modelling approach that captures everything between households and rivers is needed. A framework to achieve this is presented in this study and used to explore changes in water use and the associated impacts on wastewater treatment and in-river quality as a result of government and societal responses to COVID-19. Our modelling results revealed significant changes to household water consumption under a range of impact scenarios, however, they only showed significant impacts on pollutant concentrations in household wastewater in central London. Pollutant concentrations in rivers simulated by the model were most sensitive in the tributaries of the River Thames, highlighting the vulnerability of smaller rivers and the important role that they play in diluting pollution. Modelled ammonia and phosphates were found to be the pollutants that rivers were most sensitive to because their main source in urban rivers is domestic wastewater that was significantly altered during the imposed mobility restrictions. A model evaluation showed that we can accurately validate individual model components (i.e., water demand generator) and emphasised need for continuous water quality measurements. Ultimatly, the work provides a basis for further developments of water systems integration approaches to project changes under never-before seen scenarios.