Identifying reference benthic diatom communities in an agricultural watershed (Guadiana River, SW Spain)

Abstract

Determining the ecological status of river ecosystems should be based on reference (near-natural) conditions and on the use of their biological communities. Identifying reference conditions is particularly difficult in largely disturbed watersheds, such as those of agricultural landscapes. Ecotype reference sites and their characteristic diatom communities were identified in the Guadiana watershed. Three different ecotypes were defined: rivers with siliceous bedrocks, upper watershed calcareous rivers, and mainland watercourses. Thirteen key stressors divided in four categories (channel alteration, hydrological pressure, pollution pressure, and river habitat pressure) were used to select reference sites in each ecotype. Multivariate techniques were used to describe type-specific reference diatom community in each ecotype. Because of the difficulty to define reference sites in the mainland watercourses, some sites were selected under the criterion of minimum impacted sites. Diatoms inhabiting sites included species tolerant to high nutrient concentration and mineralized waters, like Nitzschia inconspicua, Gomphonema parvulum, and Navicula veneta. These taxa defined the best condition (near-to-reference) in an ecotype highly impacted by human activities, the best possible in the long-lasting impaired conditions in the large river watercourses in agricultural landscapes.