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Ecological validity of river-floodplain system assessment by planktonic crustacean survey (Branchiata: Branchiopoda)

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Abstract

Studies of the Slovakian Danube have indicated profound changes in the structures of several invertebrate assemblages in the section of the river bypassed by the Gabčíkovo hydroelectric project in 1992 and in adjacent floodplain water bodies. The present study investigates the relationship between hydrological connectivity and species diversity in the old main channel and adjacent left-bank water bodies, using resident cladocerans as indicators of the ecological integrity of the river-floodplain system. The work aimed to quantify cladoceran habitat preferences using habitat values (HV) and indication weights (IW) calculated from data accumulated during long-term monitoring of planktonic communities of the Danube floodplain (1,840.5–1,804 rkm) and supplemented with data from the literature. Although not listed as an indicator group in the European Union Water Framework Directive, cladocerans are shown to be highly apposite in the ecological assessment of river-floodplain systems. Of 71 recorded cladoceran species, 19 taxa showed a preference for eupotamal habitats, 24 species preferred eupotamal B/parapotamal waters, and 28 cladocerans were found to prefer the plesiopotamal/paleopotamal habitat type. Identified habitat types follow a gradient of hydrological connectivity with the main river channel, ranging from the eupotamal to more or less isolated floodplain water bodies. A secondary aim was to use the calculated values to assess the ecological integrity of the river-floodplain system. The key element of this procedure is the calculation of the Floodplain Index (FI) (Chovanec et al. Large Rivers, 15(1–4), 169–185 2005) from the summation of the habitat values and indication weights of all species present at the sampling sites. Calculated index values indicate the extent of disruption to lateral connectivity in the floodplain area.

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Acknowledgments

The study was supported by the project VEGA 2/0113/13 and ITMS: 26240220049. The authors thank Dr. Amy-Jane Beer (UK) for the English correction and the valuable suggestion. We also thank our two anonymous reviewers for their valuable criticism, which markedly contributed to the improvement of this manuscript.

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  1. Institute of Zoology, Section of Animal Ecology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava, Slovakia

    Marta Illyová

  2. Department of Physical Geography and Geoecology, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia

    Igor Matečný

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  1. Marta Illyová
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  2. Igor Matečný
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Correspondence to Marta Illyová.

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Illyová, M., Matečný, I. Ecological validity of river-floodplain system assessment by planktonic crustacean survey (Branchiata: Branchiopoda). Environ Monit Assess 186, 4195–4208 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-014-3690-0

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