Ecological status of the Raška River evaluated by epiphytic diatom community

Abstract

Bentosne silikatne alge koriste se kao bioindikatori i smatraju se korisnim u proceni ekološkog statusa voda. Uzorci epifitske zajednice silikatnih algi reke Raške sakupljeni su tokom pet sezona (2011. i 2012. godine), sa po 5 lokaliteta. Cilj ovog rada je određivanje vrednosti 17 dijatomnih indeksa radi procene ekološkog statusa vode reke Raške. Dobijene vrednosti dijatomnih indeksa ukazuju da je ekološki status vode reke Raške dobar do veoma dobar, sa umerenom do povišenom koncentracijom nutrijenata, beza većih varijacija u vrednostima između lokaliteta.

Benthic diatoms have been regularly used as ecological indicators and considered to be valuable in water quality assessment and monitoring. Epiphytic samples were collected from five points during five seasons (2011-2012). The objective of this paper is to evaluate applicability of 17 diatom based indices used worldwide for water quality assessment. The water of the Raška River can be characterized as good to very good quality with moderate to elevated concentration of nutrients.