Abstract
The key goal of the Water Framework Directive is to achieve a good ecological status in water bodies. The ecological status is mainly determined by the biological elements, which are a very good indicator of the changes taking place in water environments. Thus, this article focuses on the analysis of different methods of assessment of the ecological status of water bodies based on macrophytes used in selected countries in the European Union (the Macrophyte Index for Rivers (MMOR)—Poland; the Mean Trophic Rank (MTR)—Ireland; the Trophic Index of Macrophytes (TIM)—Bavaria, Germany; the Bulgarian Reference Index of Macrophytes (RI-BG)—Bulgaria). Three research sections have been selected for research on the river Ślęza: The reference section, the section above the barrage and the section below the barrage. The analysis carried out revealed considerable similarity between the results obtained by all these methods—the differences were at most by one class of ecological status (and the analysis of sums of Wilcoxon’s ranks revealed that there were no differences between the results obtained using different methods, i.e., p = 0.860). With respect to surface waters, investigation of biological elements is important because it allows one to retrace the past and foresee the future based on the past and present trends in the changes occurring in the species diversity and structure of not only macrophytes, but also other groups of organisms. Further action is required that would determine the scope of influence of barrages with hydroelectric buildings on the environment (in the case of the investigated barrage this influence is negative).
Highlights
In the EU, the approach to the quality assessment of water resources has been gradually changing over the last dozen or so years
From the calculated Macrophyte River Index formula, after a field survey and comparison of individual plant species with the key, the value of MIR was obtained, which is as follows: For the reference section—36.67, for the section above the barrage on the Śleza—23.33, for the section below the barrage on the Śleza—32.73 (Tables 6–8, Figure 2)
ecological status (ES) of these sections can be classified as good, poor and moderate, respectively. At this stage one may conclude that hydroelectric buildings contributed to the improvement of living conditions of macrophytes and to the appearance of species with higher environmental requirements and, less ecological tolerance
Summary
In the EU, the approach to the quality assessment of water resources has been gradually changing over the last dozen or so years. Particular focus is on the biological elements; in this case, the key role is played by the preservation of environment, thanks to which valuable habitats and flora and fauna species are protected This issue is regulated, among others, by the Habitats Directive and the Birds. = MTR), Germany (Macrophyte Trophic Index = TIM), Great Britain (River LEAFPACS2) or France (Macrophytes Index for Rivers = IBMR) [7,8,9,10,11,12,13] These methods are constantly updated and the current trend is to unify the classification procedures for water bodies. Other properties of water bodies are often taken into account: Biological, hydrological, morphological or physicochemical [12] Another group of methods is based on the investigation of acidity in rivers. The following countries are selected for comparison: Ireland (the MTR method), Germany (the TIM method) and Bulgaria (the RI-BG method)
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