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Aquatic Ecosystems Health Assessment Using Biological and Geospatial Analyses
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Aquatic Ecosystems Health Assessment Using Biological and Geospatial Analyses

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 (20 July 2024) | Viewed by 1811

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Monika Tarkowska-Kukuryk

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Hydrobiology and Protection of Ecosystems, University of Life Sciences in Lublin, Lublin, Poland
Interests: chironomids; benthic macroinvertebrates; trophic interactions; shallow lakes; bioassesment; freshwater monitoring; environmental threats
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Beata Ferencz

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Hydrobiology and Protection of Ecosystems, University of Life Sciences in Lublin, 20-262 Lublin, Poland
Interests: hydrology; lake-catchment processes; limnology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Human activities affect the water resources in structural and functional dimensions. The input of anthropogenic contaminants has the potential to impact aquatic ecosystem health. Exposure to environmental contaminants can be responsible for the survival of aquatic organisms via numerous mechanisms, including their abundances, species composition and diversity as well short- and long-term toxicity. Current research demonstrates that freshwater organisms, such as phytoplankton or benthic macroinvertebrates, together with physical and chemical properties can be successfully used to assess ecosystem health.

Recent advances in geotechnical tools (e.g., Geographic Information Systems, remote sensing, Global Positioning Systems) provide innovative platforms for diagnosing environmental health problems and, when it is required, developing interventions. Geospatial analyses methods, with their focus on space and location, play a significant role in environmental health monitoring and assessment. The main advantage of geospatial methods, especially satellite images, is the near–real-time monitoring of environmental hazards.

The ecological health of a given water body can provide a great resolution of relative condition of water ecosystems and helps to define the extent of its degradation. From a water management perspective, it is necessary to understand the links between physicochemical stressors (pollutants) and receptors (living organisms).

This Special Issue invites studies focused on water ecosystem health, water bodies greatly impacted by human activities, urbanization and agriculture, as well as aquatic ecosystems in protected areas. We hope that this SI will be an opportunity to publish results based on new methods and indices for assessing ecosystem health, including geospatial analysis.

Prof. Dr. Monika Tarkowska-Kukuryk
Dr. Beata Ferencz
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

  • aquatic ecological health assessment
  • biotic integrity index
  • hazard surveillance
  • biomonitoring exposure assessment
  • index systems for environmental health

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

14 pages, 5983 KiB  
Article
Can Plant-Associated Chironomids Be Used as an Indicator of Lake Status with the Alternative States Theory?
by Monika Tarkowska-Kukuryk and Marta Majczak
Water 2024, 16(14), 1984; https://doi.org/10.3390/w16141984 - 12 Jul 2024
Viewed by 696
Abstract
Shallow lakes according to the alternative states theory may present extremely different environmental conditions, clear water with abundant growth of macrophytes and turbid water with cyanobacterial blooms. The deterioration of water quality led to visible changes within submerged macrophytes and thus in available [...] Read more.
Shallow lakes according to the alternative states theory may present extremely different environmental conditions, clear water with abundant growth of macrophytes and turbid water with cyanobacterial blooms. The deterioration of water quality led to visible changes within submerged macrophytes and thus in available habitats for plant-associated biocenosis. Larvae of chironomids are the most numerous and widely distributed macroinvertebrates. Since benthic chironomids are used in the monitoring of environmental changes and in paleolimnological research, epiphytic chironomids are not well known in this regard. The larvae can be used as indicators of lake macrophyte status. The present study focuses on plant-associated chironomids of a group of ten shallow lakes of the Polesie region (eastern Poland). The lakes were classified with alternative states theory as macrophyte-dominated (MD), phytoplankton–macrophyte-dominated (PMD) and phytoplankton-dominated (PD). The domination structure of epiphytic chironomids showed significant changes between lake types, with the highest abundance of Paratanytarsus austriacus in MD lakes, Endochironomus albipennis in PMD lakes and Cricotopus sp. (gr. sylvestris) in PD lakes. The highest mean density was noted in PD lakes while the highest species diversity (values of Shannon–Wiener index) in PMD lakes. Moreover, environmental variables (macrophyte biomass, Secchi disc depth, chlorophyll-a and TP) differentiating lake types were used in RDA analysis to evaluate their effect on chironomid taxa distribution. Next, the variables with a significant effect on specific chironomid taxa were used in multivariate regression analysis. The results led to the creation of a model of distribution of chironomid taxa with regard to lake type. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Aquatic Ecosystems Health Assessment Using Biological and Geospatial Analyses)
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26 pages, 3798 KiB  
Article
Vulnerability Assessment of Groundwater Influenced Ecosystems in the Northeastern United States
by Shawn D. Snyder, Cynthia S. Loftin and Andrew S. Reeve
Water 2024, 16(10), 1366; https://doi.org/10.3390/w16101366 - 11 May 2024
Viewed by 845
Abstract
Groundwater-influenced ecosystems (GIEs) are increasingly vulnerable due to groundwater extraction, land-use practices, and climate change. These ecosystems receive groundwater inflow as a portion of their baseflow or water budget, which can maintain water levels, water temperature, and chemistry necessary to sustain the biodiversity [...] Read more.
Groundwater-influenced ecosystems (GIEs) are increasingly vulnerable due to groundwater extraction, land-use practices, and climate change. These ecosystems receive groundwater inflow as a portion of their baseflow or water budget, which can maintain water levels, water temperature, and chemistry necessary to sustain the biodiversity that they support. In some systems (e.g., springs, seeps, fens), this connection with groundwater is central to the system’s integrity and persistence. Groundwater management decisions for human use often do not consider the ecological effects of those actions on GIEs. This disparity can be attributed, in part, to a lack of information regarding the physical relationships these systems have with the surrounding landscape and climate, which may influence the environmental conditions and associated biodiversity. We estimate the vulnerability of areas predicted to be highly suitable for the presence of GIEs based on watershed (U.S. Geological Survey Hydrologic Unit Code 12 watersheds: 24–100 km2) and pixel (30 m × 30 m pixels) resolution in the Atlantic Highlands and Mixed Wood Plains EPA Level II Ecoregions in the northeastern United States. We represent vulnerability with variables describing adaptive capacity (topographic wetness index, hydric soil, physiographic diversity), exposure (climatic niche), and sensitivity (aquatic barriers, proportion urbanized or agriculture). Vulnerability scores indicate that ~26% of GIEs were within 30 m of areas with moderate vulnerability. Within these GIEs, climate exposure is an important contributor to vulnerability of 40% of the areas, followed by land use (19%, agriculture or urbanized). There are few areas predicted to be suitable for GIEs that are also predicted to be highly vulnerable, and of those, climate exposure is the most important contributor to their vulnerability. Persistence of GIEs in the northeastern United States may be challenged as changes in the amount and timing of precipitation and increasing air temperatures attributed to climate change affect the groundwater that sustains these systems. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Aquatic Ecosystems Health Assessment Using Biological and Geospatial Analyses)
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