Affiliation:
1. Department for Hydroecology and Water Protection, Institute for Biological Research “Siniša Stanković”, National Institute of the Republic of Serbia, University of Belgrade, Bulevar despota Stefana 142, 11108 Belgrade, Serbia
Abstract
The aim of the study was to test the significance of the EPT index in the water quality assessment of three types of water bodies in hilly and mountainous region of Serbia. The aquatic macroinvertebrate community was dominated by the group of insects, of which 95 taxa represent the EPT group. We compared the obtained values of biological indices used for the assessment of water quality according to the national legislation with the overall status assessment represented by the ecological quality classes (EQC). The results of the Spearman correlation test showed a negative correlation of EQC with the EPT index, BMWP score, H′, total number of taxa and number of sensitive taxa, while a positive correlation was observed for the values of SI and Tubificinae %. The values of EQC and biological indices were subjected to principal component analysis (PCA). The results showed that the parameters that contributed most to the differences were the EPT index, the BMWP score and the number of sensitive taxa. The results indicate that the EPT index is an excellent indicator of changes in water quality and an important tool for the ecological categorization of water bodies in mountain regions.
Funder
Ministry of Science, Technological Development and Innovation of the Republic of Serbia
Reference58 articles.
1. Vitecek, S., Johnson, R.K., and Poikane, S. (2021). Assessing the Ecological Status of European Rivers and Lakes Using Benthic Invertebrate Communities: A Practical Catalogue of Metrics and Methods. Water, 13.
2. (2000). Directive 2000/60/EC of the European Parliament and Council of 23 October 2000 Establishing a Framework for Community Action in the Field of Water Policy. Off. J. Eur. Commun., L327/1, 1–72.
3. Allan, J.D., Castillo, M.M., and Capps, K.A. (2021). Stream Ecology, Springer International Publishing.
4. Harmonising the Bioassessment of Large Rivers in the Absence of Near-Natural Reference Conditions—A Case Study of the Danube River;Birk;Freshw. Biol.,2012
5. Three Hundred Ways to Assess Europe’s Surface Waters: An Almost Complete Overview of Biological Methods to Implement the Water Framework Directive;Birk;Ecol. Indic.,2012