Anthropogenic Stressors in Upland Rivers: Aquatic Macrophyte Responses. A Case Study from Bulgaria

Upland rivers across Europe still exhibit undisturbed conditions and represent a treasure that we cannot afford to lose. We hypothesize that the combination of pristine and modified conditions could demonstrate biological responses along the stressor gradients. Thus, the response of aquatic macrophy...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Plants (Basel) 2021-12, Vol.10 (12), p.2708
Main Authors: Gecheva, Gana, Pall, Karin, Todorov, Milcho, Traykov, Ivan, Gribacheva, Nikolina, Stankova, Silviya, Birk, Sebastian
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Altitude
Anthropogenic factors
Aquatic plants
Base flow
Bryophytes
Creeks & streams
Flow velocity
Flowers & plants
helophytes
Hydrology
hydromorphology
Hydrophytes
Land use
macrophyte communities
Macrophytes
Mountains
multiple stressors
Nitrogen
Plant communities
Plants
Plants (botany)
River banks
Rivers
Species richness
Urban structures
Vegetation
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Summary:Upland rivers across Europe still exhibit undisturbed conditions and represent a treasure that we cannot afford to lose. We hypothesize that the combination of pristine and modified conditions could demonstrate biological responses along the stressor gradients. Thus, the response of aquatic macrophyte communities to anthropogenic stressors along upland rivers in Bulgaria was studied. Six stressors were selected out of 36 parameters grouped into hydromorphological, chemical variables and combined drivers (catchment land use). The stressors strongly affected species richness on the basis of biological type (bryophytes vs. vascular plants) and ecomorphological type (hydrophytes vs. helophytes). Hydrological alteration expressed by the change of the river's base flow and altered riparian habitats has led to a suppression of bryophytes and a dominance of riverbank plant communities. Seventy-five percent of mountain sites were lacking bryophytes, and the vegetation at semi-mountainous sites was dominated by vascular plants. It can be concluded that hydropeaking, organic and inorganic pollution, and discontinuous urban structures caused important modifications in the aquatic macrophyte assemblages. Macrophyte abundance and the biological and ecomorphological type of aquatic macrophytes reflect multi-stressor effects in upland rivers.
ISSN:2223-7747
2223-7747
DOI:10.3390/plants10122708