The Impact of Biodiversity and Water Quality on the Aquatic Ecosystem Health

Dear Colleagues,

Aquatic biodiversity plays a crucial role in maintaining water ecosystem health and the quality of human life. Unfortunately due to anthropopressure, they are one of the most endangered ecosystems in the world. Anthropogenic impact on aquatic ecosystems can be seen in various aspects and scales like habitat degradation, flow modification, water pollution, overexploitation, and invasion of exotic species. One of the main reasons for a decline in the functionality of aquatic ecosystems is a decrease in habitat diversity caused by channel regulation works. In many cases, they lead to bed incision and homogenization of available habitats. Another disturbance is land use, which affects not only the water quality but also hydrology and habitat structure. The huge problem, especially in developing countries, is receiving watercourses pollution from domestic and industrial point sources, and excessive water nutrient enrichment and other chemicals. Additionally, environmental changes occurring at the global scale, such as climate warming and shift in precipitation and runoff pattern negatively influence biodiversity and ecosystem health. With such large-scale and continual degradation of aquatic ecosystems, the conservation of water resources and biodiversity is crucial in providing the most important environmental services and shaping the community composition and trophic structure of ecosystems.

Therefore, the main objective of this Special Issue is to contribute to our understanding of the role of biodiversity and water quality in maintaining the aquatic ecosystem health. We encourage authors to share their opinions, knowledge, and achievements regarding the following topics:

Assessing the water resources · Aquatic organisms as an indicator of environmental changes and degradation · Water pollution and aquatic toxicology · River habitat degradation · Human impact on water quality and biodiversity · The impact of microplastic on biodiversity · Human impact on aquatic ecosystems · Impacts of chemical pollution on structure, function of and services provided by aquatic ecosystems · Global change affects on biodiversity · Conservation management

Dr. Renata Kędzior
Dr. Ewa Dacewicz
Guest Editors

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• biological diversity
• water quality
• ecosystem health
• aquatic ecology
• bioindicators
• water pollution
• ecosystem degradation