idw – Informationsdienst Wissenschaft
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
Lack of shade? Too many nutrients from adjacent fields? Modified banks? If a river or stream is not doing well, there are many possible causes, but they are sometimes difficult to detect. Scientists from the University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE) have now developed a method that evaluates biological symptoms of rivers and calculates probable causes.
"Our tool works similar to a visit to the doctor, where they ask us 'What's wrong?'", explains PD Dr. Christian Feld from Aquatic Ecology. But instead of the human body the biologists look at the biological symptoms of a body of water that can be "diseased", such as the composition of aquatic insects, crayfish and mussels. For each species has different requirements regarding its habitat. Therefore, potential causes of deterioration such as temperature, oxygen depletion, flow alteration or poor habitat availability can be derived from the biological diversity.
Taking animal samples from streams and rivers and thereby evaluating the water quality is required by EU law and has hence been a standard practice in river management for nearly 20 years. But what to do if ecological quality targets are missed? Appropriate management options are often difficult to extract from the data.
The team led by Christian Feld now provides experts with a tool that offers decision support as to the main causes of deterioration: Once the biological symptoms of a river stretch are entered into the online mask, the program calculates the probability of potential causes such as the lack of shade or nutrient enrichment, and puts them into a hierarchical order. The tool also explains the background and gives tips on how to proceed.
"On this basis, ecosystem managers can make more informed decisions," Feld explains.
The "Journal of Applied Ecology" currently reports on the helpful online tool.
Editor: Birte Vierjahn, +49 203/37 9-2427, birte.vierjahn@uni-due.de
PD Dr. Christian K. Feld, Aquatic Ecology, +49 201/18 3-4390, christian.feld@uni-due.de
Feld, C. K., Saeedghalati, M. & Hering, D. (2020): „A framework to diagnose the causes of river ecosystem deterioration using biological symptoms“. Journal of Applied Ecology. (DOI: 10.1111/1365-2664.13733)
http://www.freshwaterplatform.eu/index.php/mars-diagnostic-tools.html
River restoration at the Rotbach near Dinslaken, Germany
PD Dr. Christian K. Feld
Feld/UDE
Criteria of this press release:
Business and commerce, Journalists, Scientists and scholars, all interested persons
Biology, Environment / ecology
transregional, national
Scientific Publications, Transfer of Science or Research
English
River restoration at the Rotbach near Dinslaken, Germany
PD Dr. Christian K. Feld
Feld/UDE
You can combine search terms with and, or and/or not, e.g. Philo not logy.
You can use brackets to separate combinations from each other, e.g. (Philo not logy) or (Psycho and logy).
Coherent groups of words will be located as complete phrases if you put them into quotation marks, e.g. “Federal Republic of Germany”.
You can also use the advanced search without entering search terms. It will then follow the criteria you have selected (e.g. country or subject area).
If you have not selected any criteria in a given category, the entire category will be searched (e.g. all subject areas or all countries).
