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Freshwater Species: Status, Monitoring and Assessment

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: 20 May 2025 | Viewed by 4571

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Department of Ecology and Vertebrate Zoology, Faculty of Biology and Environmental Protection, University of Lodz, Banacha 12/16, 90-237 Lodz, Poland
Interests: biological invasions; ecology; environmental sciences; hydrobiology; water management; water monitoring
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Freshwater species are globally threatened by overexploitation, pollution, habitat destruction, and invasive species, necessitating urgent conservation assessments. Species decline underscores the need for robust monitoring aligned with international conservation targets. The IUCN Red List plays a pivotal role in evaluating extinction risk in over 30,000 species, highlighting the critical condition of freshwater biodiversity, including concerning trends in freshwater taxa. Despite the establishment of some initiatives, like the use of environmental DNA for species detection, monitoring remains inadequate, highlighting a gap in protection efforts. Addressing these challenges requires enhanced monitoring and strategic conservation efforts to safeguard freshwater ecosystems and their diverse inhabitants.

This Special Issue entitled "Freshwater Species: Status, Monitoring and Assessment" presents a critical examination of biodiversity within freshwater ecosystems and an assessment of the environmental health, distribution, and threats faced by aquatic species. It emphasizes the development of freshwater species monitoring systems for pollution assessment and the integration of environmental monitoring data with toxicological information. This issue also focuses on the application of scientific principles in designing monitoring systems on various scales and the use of monitoring data to evaluate natural resource management and pollution risk. It highlights technical advancements in environmental monitoring, covering a wide range of pollutants and examining systems for estimating exposure at both the individual and population levels. Through these discussions, this issue aims to provide insights into managing renewable natural resources and assessing anthropogenic impacts at the species and ecosystem levels.

Dr. Dariusz Halabowski
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • freshwater species
  • monitoring and ssessment
  • conservation
  • biodiversity
  • pollution assessment
  • anthropogenic impact
  • species indicator
  • invasive species
  • environmental emergency
  • management

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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16 pages, 1475 KiB  
Article
Effects of Domestic Pollution on European Brook Lamprey Ammocoetes in a Lowland River: Insights from Microbiological Analysis
by Grzegorz Zięba, Magdalena Moryl, Dominika Drzewiecka, Mirosław Przybylski, Kacper Pyrzanowski and Joanna Grabowska
Water 2024, 16(16), 2349; https://doi.org/10.3390/w16162349 - 21 Aug 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1128
Abstract
This study investigates the impact of water faecal contamination on highly threatened European brook lamprey larvae (Lampetra planeri). Water samples and the midgut contents of lampreys collected from a small lowland river upstream (site 1) and downstream from a wastewater treatment [...] Read more.
This study investigates the impact of water faecal contamination on highly threatened European brook lamprey larvae (Lampetra planeri). Water samples and the midgut contents of lampreys collected from a small lowland river upstream (site 1) and downstream from a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) discharge (site 2) were analysed to check how the faecal microbial load of the habitat is reflected in the intestines of larval lampreys. The counts of viable mesophiles, psychrophiles, Escherichia coli and faecal streptococci as bacterial indicators of microbial (including faecal) water contamination were estimated. Microbial composition and abundance in larval midgut contents depended on the numbers of various microorganisms in the water environment. At site 2, the water was heavily microbiologically contaminated throughout the year by sewage inflow from the WWTP, and the amounts of studied bacteria were also high in the midgut of lampreys inhabiting site 2 regardless of the season. At site 1, water quality was better, and the levels of tested microbial indicators were lower in the intestines of the lampreys living there. The numbers of bacteria dependent on water temperature were growing in warmer seasons both in water and in intestines. Sewage pollution negatively influenced the condition of lampreys in site 2, where they exhibited lower body condition than in site 1. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Freshwater Species: Status, Monitoring and Assessment)
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12 pages, 2488 KiB  
Article
Stream Algal Biomass Associations with Environmental Variables in a Temperate Rainforest
by Elsa K. Toskey, Stephen M. Bollens, Gretchen Rollwagen-Bollens, Peter M. Kiffney, Kyle D. Martens and Bernard T. Bormann
Water 2024, 16(11), 1533; https://doi.org/10.3390/w16111533 - 27 May 2024
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1299
Abstract
Benthic algae and autotrophic seston are important bases of stream food webs, and several different environmental factors may influence their biomass. We explored how benthic algae and autotrophic seston biomass (using chlorophyll-a as a proxy for algal biomass) were associated with stream [...] Read more.
Benthic algae and autotrophic seston are important bases of stream food webs, and several different environmental factors may influence their biomass. We explored how benthic algae and autotrophic seston biomass (using chlorophyll-a as a proxy for algal biomass) were associated with stream temperature, channel width, canopy cover, stream cardinal orientation, benthic macroinvertebrate functional feeding group abundance, salmonid biomass, and water velocity in 16 small, fish-bearing streams in the temperate rainforest of the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State, USA, in the summer of 2020. We performed a mixed-effects regression analysis of extracted chlorophyll-a (chl-a) and then used model averaging to determine significant (α = 0.05) algal–environmental associations for benthic algae and autotrophic seston separately. We found that benthic algae chl-a concentration increased significantly with stream temperature (p = 0.0085) and decreased significantly with water velocity (p = 0.0053). For autotrophic seston, we found that chl-a concentration increased significantly with benthic macroinvertebrate predator abundance (p = 0.0007) and stream temperature (p = 0.0160). This study underscores the need to consider a broad range of environmental variables when making research and management decisions concerning stream ecology. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Freshwater Species: Status, Monitoring and Assessment)
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Review

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21 pages, 814 KiB  
Review
Aquatic Fungi as Bioindicators of Freshwater Ecosystems
by Juliana Barros, Sarra Ben Tanfous and Sahadevan Seena
Water 2024, 16(23), 3404; https://doi.org/10.3390/w16233404 - 26 Nov 2024
Viewed by 1527
Abstract
Aquatic fungi, especially aquatic hyphomycetes, are promising bioindicators for assessing the health and integrity of freshwater ecosystems. Their sensitivity to a wide range of environmental stressors, coupled with their essential roles in ecological processes such as organic matter decomposition and nutrient cycling, establish [...] Read more.
Aquatic fungi, especially aquatic hyphomycetes, are promising bioindicators for assessing the health and integrity of freshwater ecosystems. Their sensitivity to a wide range of environmental stressors, coupled with their essential roles in ecological processes such as organic matter decomposition and nutrient cycling, establish them as important tools for monitoring ecological disturbances. By examining aquatic fungal responses at various biological levels—from molecular mechanisms to ecosystem dynamics—ecologists are able to uncover valuable information about the functioning of freshwater habitats. Despite challenges such as the complexity of fungal communities and knowledge gaps, the prospects for using aquatic fungi as bioindicators are encouraging. Advancing research and technological innovations are expected to refine our understanding of the ecological roles of aquatic fungi and enhance their use in detecting impacts on freshwater ecosystems. The inclusion of these organisms in environmental monitoring programmes alongside other bioindicators could significantly improve our ability to detect and mitigate the effects of both natural and anthropogenic environmental changes, leading to more effective conservation strategies. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Freshwater Species: Status, Monitoring and Assessment)
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