Ecohydrology & Hydrobiology最新文献

Substantial loss of biodiversity and the proliferation of invasive alien species can occur due to land cover anthropogenic transformations on islands. However, the effect of anthropogenic habitat modifications on the distribution of insular freshwater microcrustaceans is unknown. In the present paper, we examine the consequences of human activity on the insular diversity of microcrustaceans in the context of the theories of island biogeography and intermediate disturbances. The samples were collected in Madeira Island at 38 freshwater sampling sites with different anthropopressure. Morphology-based species identification of the copepods and cladocerans was supplemented with genetic analysis (COI) in some species. To estimate the species richness of the island, rarefaction, and extrapolation methods were used. Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA) was applied to assess the influence of geospatial and environmental variables on the species distribution. A total of 20 species belonging to six families were identified, of which 16 species are new to Madeira. There was low similarity between the fauna recorded and known previously on the island. The observed species richness was higher than the predictions by the island biogeography models for Madeira. CCA revealed a strong influence of anthropogenic land use on crustaceans. Anthropogenic transformations locally led to the depletion of fauna, but on the island scale they contributed to the increase of species richness including seven putative alien species. An increase in the artificial land cover and a decrease in the forest areas could lead to a further shift in the domination of non-indigenous microcrustaceans.

Individual processes scale up: these are the unique phenotypes that undergo selection, constitute populations, interact with other species, and thus shape biological reality. Understanding how individual animals differ in behaviour, that is understanding how behavioural individualities (personalities) emerge and are selected, leads us to a better understanding of how higher level systems, such as food webs, communities, or ecosystems, function. As amidst the contemporary global environmental crisis, freshwater habitats and their fish inhabitants are disproportionately both biodiverse and threatened, it is of crucial importance to understand how individual fishes cope with the anthropogenic change. In the present work we first provide a snapshot view of what personalities in freshwater fish are, how they manifest in different species, are shaped under different selective pressures, emerge over ontogeny, and form complex traits. This includes the review of research on fish boldness, exploration, activity, aggressiveness and sociability, and on their consistency and correlations. We then focus on three major threats to freshwater fish, on how fish cope with them behaviourally, and on where personalities may have profound ecological and evolutionary outcomes. The chosen focus on habitat fragmentation by damming, climate change and chemical pollution provides us with an insight into the pervasive role fish personalities play in the contemporary world.

Eutrophication of lakes, as one of the most challenging global environmental problems for more than half a century has been addressed by a vast number of publications. Issues hitherto not considered or treated superficially have been discussed here. They concern: i. breakthrough phases in the 100-year period of development of the Eutrophication Concept (EC) and, ii. concepts and theories derived from EC and their complementarity in terms of assumptions and terminology. The paper traces the history of perception of the primary factors responsible for lake eutrophication. It presents the evolution of the approach to the problem, initially focusing on point and then non-point external sources of pollution, supplemented with internal nutrient supply, bottom-up and top-down regulation, with increasing emphasis on the role of interactions in the food web. The article addresses the justification of the Lake Aging Concept (LAC), assuming an inevitable increase in the trophic status during the development of a lake, and unjustly identifying eutrophication with progressing disappearance of lakes in a geologically-relevant timescale. It also discusses the assumptions of the Theory of Alternative Stable States (TASS) and discrepancies between EC and TASS regarding the application of different terminology in reference to the same phenomena and lake classifications.

Salinization is an emerging problem for freshwater biodiversity. Road salt treatment results in salinization of local freshwater, influencing its entire ecosystem throughout the year. The present study examines the impact of road salt on the hatching success of two zooplankton species, Daphnia magna and Thamnocephalus platyurus, using pure laboratory lines from MicroBioTest. Hatching success was determined without incubation (T0) and after 3, 7 and 28 days of incubation at 5°C (T3, T7 and T28, respectively), at different NaCl concentrations. The low-temperature incubation was intended to simulate winter conditions - 5°C corresponds to the water temperature at the bottom of the ponds during winter in a temperate climate. The number of hatchings decreased with increasing NaCl concentration for T. platyurus, and decreased rapidly after a crucial value of 7 600 mg NaCl/L for D. magna. At the second hatching (eggs washed after first incubation and put into standard freshwater), D. magna demonstrated a low hatching rate regardless of NaCl concentration, while most T. platyurus hatchings were observed at the highest NaCl concentration; hence, the highest (15 200 mg/L) and lowest (1 900 mg/L) NaCl concentrations resulted in similar total hatching for the two species. The incubation time for three and seven days in NaCl at 5°C had no significant impact on hatching success; however, T28 resulted in significantly lower hatching success at all NaCl concentrations and controls. No significant differences in hatching success were noted if the eggs were first washed after incubation in NaCl and then put into the standard freshwater for hatching.

The occurrence, abundance, contribution, and size structure of protected and alien fish species were studied in 535 lakes situated in the northern and central parts of Poland in 2014-2021. We hypothesised that protected fish species, due to their status, would be rare in terms of abundance within certain lakes and/or less distributed. Four protected (Cottus poecilopus, Cobitis taenia, Misgurnus fossilis, and Rhodeus amarus) and eight alien species of fish (Ctenopharyngodon idella, Neogobius fluviatilis, Pseudorasbora parva, Acipenser baerii, Carassius gibelio, Ameiurus nebulosus, Hypophthalmichthys molitrix, and Cyprinus carpio) were identified in the studied lakes. Among protected species, the most common and frequent were R. amarus (65% of the studied lakes) and C. taenia (47% of the studied lakes). Other two species (C. poecilopus and M. fossilis) were recorded in one (0.2%) and 18 lakes (3.4%), respectively. Alien species were most often represented by C. gibelio, which occurred in 96 lakes (18% of the studied lakes). The presence of the remaining seven alien species was found in not many lakes (0.2-5.2% of the studied lakes). The abundance of C. gibelio was positively, while A. nebulosus was negatively related to the trophic state of lakes. Cobitis taenia was positively correlated with morphometric parameters of lakes (area and maximum depth). It came as surprise to us that some protected species were quite frequent and sometimes numerous, in contrast to the majority of alien species.

This study investigated the zooplankton community structure in Gołdap Lake, located in the northeastern part of Poland. Due to the many years of uncontrolled inflows of pollutants, the ecological condition of the lake has deteriorated. Despite many remedial actions in the catchment, the internal nutrient load of the lake was too great to improve its condition. This goal required additional in-situ activities. The restoration of Gołdap Lake started in 2017. The substance which was used for restoration purposes was Phoslock®. It is lanthanum-modified clay that can bind phosphate into insoluble rhabdophane-(La). Water and zooplankton samples were collected from September 2017 to August 2021. A total of 70 species, including 44 rotifers, 16 copepods, and 10 cladocerans species, were detected during the research period. The whole zooplankton community was divided into 7 functional groups: rotifer filter feeders (RF), rotifer carnivores (RC), small crustacean filter feeders (SCF), mid-sized crustacean filter feeders (MCF), mid-sized crustacean carnivores (MSC), large crustacean filter feeders (LCF) and large crustacean carnivores (LCC). The most abundant were species from the rotifer filter feeder functional group. This study showed a significant correlation between dominant zooplankton groups and environmental variables such as nitrite nitrogen, water temperature, dissolved oxygen, conductivity, biological oxygen demand, and dissolved organic carbon. According to the values of zooplankton-based indices, the ecological state of Gołdap Lake hadn't changed during the research period. The major driving factors which affect the structure of zooplankton were: poor quality of food base, top-down pressure of planktivorous fish, and competition between zooplankton groups.

Catchment land use/land cover (LU/LC) is one of the crucial determinants of the water quality and condition of biota in aquatic environments. The aim of this study was to investigate how LU/LC in lake catchments influences the physicochemical and biological indicators used to assess the ecological status of lakes in Poland and whether these relationships vary depending on the spatial range. We analysed the catchment LU/LC forms of 114 flow-through lakes in three spatial ranges, i.e., a 100 m-wide buffer strip (BUF100), the direct catchment (DIR), and the total catchment (TOT). The water quality and biological variables were derived from the state monitoring conducted in the period 2012–2013. The redundancy analyses (RDA) and the Monte Carlo permutation tests depicted that the strength in explaining the parameter followed the order: TOT > DIR > BUF100 for physicochemical parameters, DIR = TOT > BUF100 for phytoplankton indicators and BUF100 > DIR > TOT for macrophyte indicators. In the direct and total catchment, the proportion of arable lands was decisive in shaping the macrophyte and physicochemical status, while the proportion of artificial surfaces affected phytoplankton status. It was also found that forested buffer zones promoted good macrophyte ecological status. The other types of LU/LC, i.e., meadows and pastures, wetlands, and surface waters exhibited little to no or marginal impact on the physicochemical and biological indicators, regardless of the spatial scale considered. Our results contribute to the rational planning of land development in lake surroundings, including the design of protected areas for inland waters.

The aim of this study was to assess the state of knowledge and opinions on water quality, the need for sewage treatment, and on efficiency and profitability of the existing hydrophytes treatment plants, of residents of the three small towns in Poland (Świętokrzyskie Voivodship): Nowa Słupia and Mniów (6 and 7 years, respectively, after commissioning of the plant water systems), as well as Bliżyn, where no treatment plant was operating at that time. Comparative assessment of the environmental perceptions, attitudes, and awareness of small-town dwellers regarding water quality and its management became the evident outcome of the survey. An even more important result, however, was proposing and testing an original approach to the analysis of social attitudes toward issues related to environmental state and management, which should, as a standard, precede important decisions, policies, and technological solutions regarding environmental protection.

Soft-water lakes are valuable natural habitats and an important aquatic ecosystems. Lobelia lakes, which are classified based on the occurrence of isoetids, are the most characteristic of this group. The aim of our research was to assess the species richness and structure of pelagic zooplankton communities in the epilimnion of 45 Polish soft-water lakes. The lakes analyzed included a wide range of trophic states from oligotrophic to eutrophic. We noted 79 species of zooplankton, including 49 rotifer, 23 cladoceran, and seven copepod species. The species composition of epilimnetic zooplankton communities in these soft-water lakes was poor, and the species richness and zooplankton biomass were low. In these lakes, the species with the highest frequencies accounted for an important part of the total zooplankton biomass of the zooplankton communities, but the species occurring at lower frequencies differed among the lakes. The most common rotifer taxa were: Keratella cochlearis, Keratella cochlearis var. hispida, Polyarthra euryptera, Gastropus stylifer, and Trichocerca similis. The most important crustacean species in the soft-water lakes were: Macrocyclops albidus, Ceriodaphnia quadrangula, and Eudiaptomus sp. The major factors influencing rotifer species richness were total phosphorus, conductivity, and the trophic state of the lakes. Cladoceran species richness was positively related to lake area and pH, while the species richness of copepod communities was negatively related to chlorophyll a concentrations.

A significant number of emerging pollutants resulting from point and diffuse pollution can be found in the aquatic environment. Pharmaceuticals, including antidepressants, are increasingly consumed across the world. Their good water solubility and resistance to biodegradation are major challenges to wastewater treatment. Pharmaceuticals enter aquatic systems mainly with wastewater via wastewater treatment plants. These emerging contaminants can be removed by introducing biological cleaning systems with plants that grow near secondary wastewater units. This study analyzed the ability of Lemna minor to bioaccumulate four antidepressants: sertraline (SER), fluoxetine (FLU), paroxetine (PAR), and mianserin (MNS). A significant decrease in drug concentrations was observed in the samples with L. minor in comparison with those without plants. Among the tested drugs, L. minor showed the greatest bioaccumulation potential for SER, and the lowest for FLU. The bioconcentration factor for MNS never exceeded 100 L kg^–1 even after 7 days, while for SER it was 1,902 L kg^–1. These results indicate that L. minor can influence the water treatment process in the natural ecosystem and serve as an effective tool in wastewater treatment for the removal of the analyzed antidepressants.