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The Ecological Quality Assessment of Freshwater Ecosystems: Present and Future
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The Ecological Quality Assessment of Freshwater Ecosystems: Present and Future

A special issue of Water (ISSN 2073-4441). This special issue belongs to the section "Biodiversity and Functionality of Aquatic Ecosystems".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 August 2023) | Viewed by 11152

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Peter Bitušík

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Biology and Ecology, Matej Bel University, Banska Bystrica, Slovakia
Interests: aquatic ecology; palaeolimnology; water assessment using aquatic invertebrates; monitoring
Dr. Ladislav Hamerlik

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Biology and Ecology, Matej Bel University, Banska Bystrica, Slovakia
Interests: limnology of alpine and arctic waters limnology of glacial streams taxonomy, ecology and biology of midges midges as a tool for assessing current and past environmental changes

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

As we all know very well, the protection, preservation and restoration of aquatic ecosystems and their functions are of global importance and their study is still one of the most timely topics of the current basic and applied limnological research.

In this special issue, we welcome original research dealing with the assessment of the quality of freshwater ecosystems using a broad range of biological indicators that respond to environmental stressors such as nutrient enrichment, acidification, toxic substances, aquatic habitat loss, land cover change and overexploitation.

We expect the use of a wide range of aquatic organisms and the application of both common assessment methods, namely biotic indices, multimetric indices and predictive models, and also novel ecogenomic indices based on eDNA data.

Studies based on both long-term instrumental/ limnological and palaeolimnological data or their combinations are highly recommended. Applied papers will be accepted if the ecological context is obvious and clearly stated. In the special issue, there will also be an opportunity to publish reviews, commentaries and opinion papers.

Prof. Dr. Peter Bitušík
Dr. Ladislav Hamerlik
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Water is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • water quality
  • ecological state
  • bioassessment
  • phytoplankton
  • zooplankton
  • benthic algae and invertebrates
  • macrophytes
  • fish
  • functional traits
  • DNA-based tools

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

11 pages, 2554 KiB  
Article
Isolation and Identification of Bacterial Communities in Neutral Mine Drainage in Central Slovakian Neovolcanites (Slovakia)
by Veronika Prepilková, Zuzana Perháčová, Marián Schwarz and Katarína Trnková
Water 2023, 15(5), 951; https://doi.org/10.3390/w15050951 - 1 Mar 2023
Viewed by 2317
Abstract
There are several sources of mine drainage left over from past mining sites in the Central Slovakian neovolcanites. The neutral pH and high concentrations of sulphates and multiple potentially hazardous elements, such as zinc or manganese, are typical in this region. However, this [...] Read more.
There are several sources of mine drainage left over from past mining sites in the Central Slovakian neovolcanites. The neutral pH and high concentrations of sulphates and multiple potentially hazardous elements, such as zinc or manganese, are typical in this region. However, this environment could be home to specific microbiota. The aim of the study was to characterize bacterial populations in mine drainage in the Central Slovakian neovolcanites. Direct microscopic observations, cultivation methods, MALDI TOF mass spectrometry, and 16S rRNA gene sequencing of isolates were used for identification. Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria were almost equally represented in the mine water samples. The most abundant bacterium was the genus Bacillus spp. (43.48%). Another large group of bacteria consisted of Proteobacteria (34.78%), represented by Pseudomonas spp. (17.39%), Serratia spp. (13.04%), and Providencia spp. (4.35%). Our data confirm the presence of Bacillus spp. and Pseudomonas spp. as bacterial species occurring in an environment polluted by potentially hazardous elements, which may indicate their bioremediation potential. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Ecological Quality Assessment of Freshwater Ecosystems: Present and Future)
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18 pages, 2565 KiB  
Article
A Digital Light Microscopic Method for Diatom Surveys Using Embedded Acid-Cleaned Samples
by Andrea M. Burfeid-Castellanos, Michael Kloster, Sára Beszteri, Ute Postel, Marzena Spyra, Martin Zurowietz, Tim W. Nattkemper and Bánk Beszteri
Water 2022, 14(20), 3332; https://doi.org/10.3390/w14203332 - 21 Oct 2022
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 2870
Abstract
Diatom identification and counting by light microscopy of permanently embedded acid-cleaned silicate shells (frustules) is a fundamental method in ecological and water quality investigations. Here we present a new variant of this method based on “digital virtual slides”, and compare it to the [...] Read more.
Diatom identification and counting by light microscopy of permanently embedded acid-cleaned silicate shells (frustules) is a fundamental method in ecological and water quality investigations. Here we present a new variant of this method based on “digital virtual slides”, and compare it to the traditional, non-digitized light microscopy workflow on freshwater samples. We analysed three replicate slides taken from six benthic samples using two methods: (1) working directly on a light microscope (the “traditional” counting method), and (2) preparing “virtual digital slides” by high-resolution slide scanning and subsequently identifying and labelling individual valves or frustules using a web browser-based image annotation platform (the digital method). Both methods led to comparable results in terms of species richness, diatom indices and diatom community composition. Although counting by digital microscopy was slightly more time consuming, our experience points out that the digital workflow can not only improve the transparency and reusability of diatom counts but it can also increase taxonomic precision. The introduced digital workflow can also be applied for taxonomic inter-expert calibration through the web, and for producing training image sets for deep-learning-based diatom identification, making it a promising and versatile alternative or extension to traditional light microscopic diatom analyses in the future. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Ecological Quality Assessment of Freshwater Ecosystems: Present and Future)
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12 pages, 3231 KiB  
Article
Odonata Assemblages in Anthropogenically Impacted Habitats in the Drava River—A Long-Term Study
by Marina Vilenica and Zlatko Mihaljević
Water 2022, 14(19), 3119; https://doi.org/10.3390/w14193119 - 3 Oct 2022
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2409
Abstract
Lotic freshwater ecosystems are among the most threatened ecosystems worldwide due to the effects of multiple stressors, such as intensive land use in their catchments, morphological alterations, flow regulation, pollution, and climate change. Odonata are often used as valuable indicators of ecological integrity [...] Read more.
Lotic freshwater ecosystems are among the most threatened ecosystems worldwide due to the effects of multiple stressors, such as intensive land use in their catchments, morphological alterations, flow regulation, pollution, and climate change. Odonata are often used as valuable indicators of ecological integrity and anthropogenic disturbance of freshwater habitats. Here, we present the results of a study on Odonata assemblages in anthropogenically impacted habitats (hydropower plant reservoirs, tailrace canals, drainage ditches, and old river channels) conducted over a nine-year period. The negative impacts of anthropogenic activities on inhabiting biota were confirmed—with only 11 species recorded, the Odonata assemblages were species-poor and had low population densities. Although most species recorded were generalists, some species of national conservation concern were detected. Among the physico-chemical water parameters, the concentrations of ammonium, orthophosphates, nitrates, and mineral oils in the water were found to be the most important determinants of Odonata assemblages. The preservation of near-natural sites in the vicinity of anthropogenically impacted and man-made habitats is important for maintaining the local Odonata fauna and for the preservation of rare species. Our results highlight the importance of long-term data for determining the occurrence of Odonata species and monitoring their population dynamics. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Ecological Quality Assessment of Freshwater Ecosystems: Present and Future)
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17 pages, 2016 KiB  
Article
The Impacts of Different Anthropogenic Disturbances on Macroinvertebrate Community Structure and Functional Traits of Glacier-Fed Streams in the Tianshan Mountains
by Yuwei Liu, Yilin Tian, Yingzhi Gao, Dong Cui, Wei Zhang, Ziwei Jiao, Fulong Yao, Zhenxing Zhang and Haijun Yang
Water 2022, 14(8), 1298; https://doi.org/10.3390/w14081298 - 15 Apr 2022
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2753
Abstract
Macroinvertebrates are sensitive to environmental disturbances, however, the effects of human activities on macroinvertebrate community structures and functional traits in glacier-fed streams are concerning. To elucidate the effects of horse, cattle and sheep grazing, hot spring scenic development, and historic iron ore mine [...] Read more.
Macroinvertebrates are sensitive to environmental disturbances, however, the effects of human activities on macroinvertebrate community structures and functional traits in glacier-fed streams are concerning. To elucidate the effects of horse, cattle and sheep grazing, hot spring scenic development, and historic iron ore mine development on macroinvertebrate communities, we conducted a study in three glacier-fed streams of the Tianshan Mountains in northwest China in April 2021. Our results showed that the species richness and density significantly decreased due to grazing (p < 0.05). There were more taxa with resilience traits such as “small size at maturity” in the grazing stream. The EPT richness and density affected by hot spring scenic development significantly decreased compared to the undisturbed point (p < 0.05). There was a significant increase in taxa with resistance traits such as “bi-or-multivoltine” in the hot spring stream. The stream affected by historic mine development is currently in the self-recovery stage following the closure of the mine ten years ago. Additionally, the species richness, EPT richness, and density at the mining site were significantly higher than the source site (p < 0.05), reflecting that the habitat fragmentation caused by previous mining activities prevented the upward dispersal of macroinvertebrates. The taxa in the mining stream were also characterized by higher resistance traits such as “abundant occurrence in drift”. These results were attributed to the impacts of human disturbance on habitat stability, habitat heterogeneity, water quality, and material cycling of stream ecosystems, indicating human disturbance on the efficiency of resource utilization and functional diversification. In addition, our results showed that functional indicators of macroinvertebrate communities are helpful for monitoring and evaluating habitat conditions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Ecological Quality Assessment of Freshwater Ecosystems: Present and Future)
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