Defining a disturbance gradient in a Middle-Eastern River Basin |
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| Institution: | 1. Division of Fisheries, Department of Natural Resources, Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan 84156-83111, Iran;2. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development, Cincinnati, OH, USA;3. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development, Corvallis, OR, USA;4. Tetra Tech Inc., 400 Red Brook Blvd. Suite 200, Owings Mills, MD 21117, USA;5. Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands;6. Laboratory of Applied Microbiology, University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland, Switzerland |
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| Abstract: | A physical, chemical and biological characterization of river systems is needed to evaluate their ecological quality and support restoration programs. Herein, we describe an approach using water chemistry, physical structure and land use for identification of a disturbance gradient existing in the Karun River Basin. For this purpose, at each site, physical structure and physico-chemical data were collected once in each season for a total of 4 samples during the period (October 2018 - September 2019). Principal components analysis (PCA) of 17 variables identified five variables that were influential across all seasons: conductivity, total habitat score, stream morphology, clay & silt, and sand. Of the 54 sites, 14, 26 and 14 sites were classified as least, moderate and most disturbed sites, respectively. The metric Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera and Trichoptera (EPT) taxa was used for validation of the classification. Results in different seasons showed that all the least disturbed sites (n = 14) were significantly different from moderate and most disturbed sites (p < 0.01). In this study the validation process presented good confirmation of a priori reference sites selection, showing that the proposed criteria could be considered as appropriate tools for characterization of the existent disturbance gradient in the Karun River Basin. |
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| Keywords: | Least-disturbed conditions Bioassessment Rivers Physico-chemical EPT |
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