USABILITY OF BIODROUGHT METHOD FOR BIOINDICATION OF STREAM INTERMITTENCY ON WIDER GEOGRAPHICAL SCALE
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| Year of publication | 2017 |
| Type | Conference abstract |
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| Description | More frequent episodes of complete or partial drying of streambeds have been recorded during last decades in almost all Central European countries. The stream intermittency may have serious ecological and economic consequences depending on the frequency and duration of dry periods, and it raised an increasing demand for proper identification and classification of this phenomenon. Conventional hydrological techniques are expensive and unpractical when hundreds of small stream have to be monitored on large scale – e.g. big river basin or whole country. During the BIODROUGHT project (biodrought.eu) we developed an alternative tool for retrospective detection of dry episodes, which were defined as flow cessation in a monitored stretch. The method, which is based on macroinvertebrate community analyses, was developed in the Czech Republic and calibrated for small-sized, near-pristine streams (up to 4th Strahler order, altitude 200-500 m). It uses a multimetric index based on taxonomic-functional composition and indicator taxa, and enables the classification of streams into three groups: permanent (continual flow all year), vulnerable (dry period < 10 days per year), and intermittent (dry period > 10 days per year). To test the usability of this method on a wider spatial/geographical scale we gathered independent samples from the Czech Republic and also from the model sites in Mecsek Mountains in Hungary. The results show good potential for extensive usage of this method, although for wider geographical application it has to be adapted for regional fauna and available taxonomic resolution commonly used for monitoring in a target country. |
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