Abstract
Macroinvertebrates can provide an integrated picture of environmental changes. Health of rivers can be assessed based on measured changes in the ecological structure of macroinvertebrates. Using aquatic macroinvertebrates, we evaluated health of Mohammad-Abad River located in Golestan Province of Iran. Twelve sampling stations were selected along the river. Macroinvertebrates were sampled, and physicochemical parameters were measured at the same time. Twenty-seven families of macroinvertebrates were identified. They belonged to 6 orders of macroinvertebrates, Diptera with 86.82%, and had the highest frequency. Odonata (0.4%) had the lowest frequency. Canonical correlation analysis (CCA) indicates importance of nutrients in the distribution of different macroinvertebrates. Seventy-three percent of the variance in CCA was explained by nutrients and water temperature. Iranian Water Quality Index for Surface Water Resources Conventional (IRWQIsc) and Hilsenhoff Family-level Biotic Index (FBI), and biological monitoring working party/average score per taxon (BMWP/ASPT) consistently showed the same trend in our analyses. Our results showed high efficiency of water quality bio-evaluation for the river by measuring the macroinvertebrate communities, so that the results of the biological indices are consistent with the water quality index. Our method improves the costly, time-consuming and polluting methods that have been used in the past. Additionally, environmental changes due to a variety of land uses are better illustrated by our improved method. We conclude that FBI and BMWP/ASPT indices are suitable for assessing river health by macroinvertebrates.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Aazami J, Esmaili-Sari A, Abdoli A, Sohrabi H, Van den Brink PJ (2015a) Monitoring and assessment of water health quality in the Tajan River, Iran, using physicochemical, fish and macroinvertebrates indices. J Environ Health Sci 13:20–29
Aazami J, Sari AE, Abdoli A, Sohrabi H, Van den Brink PJ (2015b) Assessment of ecological quality of the Tajan River in Iran using a multimetric macroinvertebrate index and species traits. Environ Manage 56:260–269
Aazami J, Moradpour H, Zamani A, Kianimehr N (2018) Ecological quality assessment of Kor River in Fars Province using macroinvertebrates indices. Int J Environ Sci Technol 17:1–10
Alisha L, Jonathan C, Sara E (2018) Assessing the ecological health of rivers when they are dry. Ecol Indic 2:45–51
Al-Shami SA, Rawi CSM, HassanAhmad A, Nor SAM (2010) Distribution of Chironomidae (Insecta: Diptera) in polluted rivers of the Juru River Basin, Penang, Malaysia. J Environ Sci 22:1718–1727
Appalasamy S, Arumugam N, Sukri S, Eh Rak A (2018) Physico-chemical water quality and macroinvertebrate distribution along Sungai Asah in Pulau Tioman, Johor, Malaysia. Songklanakarin J Sci Technol 40:1–6
Arkia S, Yousefi Siahkalroudi S, Kheradpir N (2019) Chironomidae (Insecta: Diptera) biodiversity at the generic level in the Lar River, Tehran Province with introducing two new genera for Iranian fauna. J Wildl Biodivers 3:31–39
Armanini D, Horrigan N, Monk W, Peters D, Baird DJ (2011) Development of a benthic macroinvertebrate flow sensitivity index for Canadian rivers. River Res Appl 27:723–737
Banagar G, Riazi B, Rahmani H, Jolodar MN (2018) Monitoring and assessment of water quality in the Haraz River of Iran, using benthic macroinvertebrates indices. Biologia 73:965–975
Birmingham M, Heimdal D, Hubbard T, Krier K, Leopold R, Luzier J, Neely J, Soenen B, Wilton T (2005) Benthic macroinvertebrate key. Volunteer water quality monitoring
Bonada N, Resh VH (2013) Mediterranean-climate streams and rivers: geographically separated but ecologically comparable freshwater systems. Hydrobiologia 719:1–29
Colin N, Porte C, Fernandes D, Barata C, Padrós F, Carrassón M et al (2016) Ecological relevance of biomarkers in monitoring studies of macro-invertebrates and fish in Mediterranean rivers. Sci Total Environ 540:307–323
Dalu T, Wasserman RJ, Tonkin JD, Alexander ME, Dalu MT, Motitsoe SN et al (2017) Assessing drivers of benthic macroinvertebrate community structure in African highland streams: an exploration using multivariate analysis. Sci Total Environ 601:1340–1348
Eaton AD, Clesceri LS, Greenberg AE, Franson MAH (2005) Standard methods for the examination of water and wastewater. Am Public Health Assoc 21:1600
Flotemersch JE, Saavedra JM, Laffitte L, Laurenzano B, Bonardi MA, Blocksom KA (2017) Benthic macroinvertebrate field sampling effort required to produce a sample adequate for the assessment of rivers and streams of Neuquén Province, Argentina. Limnol Ecol Manag Inland Waters 65:55–60
Hilsenhoff WL (1982) Using a biotic index to evaluate water quality in streams. Department of Natural Resources, Madison, WI
Imanpour Namin J, Sharifinia M, Bozorgi Makrani A (2013) Assessment of fish farm effluents on macroinvertebrates based on biological indices in the Tajan River (north Iran). Casp J Environ Sci 11:29–39
Kaboosi K, Jelini R (2017) The efficiency of detention reservoirs for flood control on the Jafar Abad River in Golestan province (Iran). Russ Meteorol Hydrol 42:129–134
Karaouzas I, Smeti E, Kalogianni E, Skoulikidis NT (2019) Ecological status monitoring and assessment in Greek rivers: do macroinvertebrate and diatom indices indicate same responses to anthropogenic pressures? Ecol Indic 101:126–132
Kelly-Quinn M, Bradley C, Harrington T, Rippey B, White B (2019) RIVTYPE, a database of hydrochemistry, macroinvertebrate, macrophyte and phytobenthos communities from river sites in Ireland generated for typological classification. In: Biology and environment: proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, vol 1. JSTOR, pp 29–36
Ko C-Y, Iwata T, Lee J-Y, Murakami A, Okano J, Ishikawa NF et al (2019) Assessing alpha and beta diversities of benthic macroinvertebrates and their environmental drivers between watersheds with different levels of habitat transformation in Japan. Mar Freshw Res 70:504–512
Mandaville SM (2002) Benthic macroinvertebrates in freshwaters: taxa tolerance values, metrics, and protocols. Soil & Water Conservation Society of Metro Halifax, Nova Scotia
Noori R, Berndtsson R, Hosseinzadeh M, Adamowski JF, Abyaneh MR (2019) A critical review on the application of the National Sanitation Foundation Water Quality Index. Environ Pollut 244:575–587
Sharifinia M (2015) Macroinvertebrates of the Iranian running waters: a review. Acta Limnol Bras 27:356–369
Shokri M, Rossaro B, Rahmani HJB (2014) Response of macroinvertebrate communities to anthropogenic pressures in Tajan River (Iran). Biologia 69:1395–1409
Svensson O, Bellamy AS, Van den Brink PJ, Tedengren M, Gunnarsson JS (2018) Assessing the ecological impact of banana farms on water quality using aquatic macroinvertebrate community composition. Environ Sci Pollut Res 25:13373–13381
Vijver MG, van den Brink PJ (2014) Macro-invertebrate decline in surface water polluted with imidacloprid: a rebuttal and some new analyses. PLoS ONE 9:e89837
Acknowledgements
We thank of Dr. Zamani for his valuable support of this study. We also thank our colleagues at the Environmental Protected Agency of Iran for their help in sampling and laboratory analyses.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Additional information
Editorial responsibility: R. Saravanan.
Electronic supplementary material
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Aazami, J., Maghsodlo, H., Mira, S.S. et al. Health evaluation of riverine ecosystems using aquatic macroinvertebrates: a case study of the Mohammad-Abad River, Iran. Int. J. Environ. Sci. Technol. 17, 2637–2644 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-020-02658-4
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-020-02658-4