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Green Materials for Energy, Products and Depollution pp 415–448Cite as

Water Quality Monitoring by Aquatic Bryophytes

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Part of the book series: Environmental Chemistry for a Sustainable World ((ECSW,volume 3))

Abstract

Bryophytes are non-vascular plants that are in a close relationship with their immediate environment. They often have large biomass in freshwater ecosystem and high level of production. Moreover, their tissues contain elevated amount of C, N and P, and cell walls have high cation exchange capacity. Aquatic bryophytes can be used to assess freshwater pollution as indicators – presence or absence of species – or as monitors for accumulating elements. Consumption of metals and other substances by aquatic bryophytes is an important exposure pathway for consumers. The use of bryophytes for water quality assessment is well documented, but different techniques and approaches prevent standardization and their applicability on the European scale. Thus we review major findings in ‘bryomonitoring’. Data were reviewed from a range of countries, mainly in Europe, illustrating the advantages of low cost methods for monitoring water quality.

Here we introduce the term ‘bryomonitoring’ as a method to assess alterations of the environment. Biomonitoring can be split into passive – observation and analysis of native bryophytes, and active biomonitoring – based on species transplantation for a fixed exposure period. Two widespread northern hemisphere aquatic mosses, Fontinalis antipyretica and Platyhypnidium riparioides, are the most commonly used biomonitors for river quality assessment. For passive biomonitoring key issues are background and reference level determination, and proper selection of sampling sites. For active monitoring, upper segments of a same age from a reference region should be applied. The actual analytical techniques give in general similar results, but not completely interchangeable.

Aquatic bryophytes are used to assess the ecological status. They are a stress-tolerant and various species have a wide trophic range. Fontinalis antipyretica and Platyhypnidium ripariodes have all criteria for biota monitoring in rivers for heavy metals.

Standardization of sampling procedures and analytical techniques in aquatic bryomonitoring is further needed. The number of samples should be fixed based on sampling area surface. Period of exposure time for active biomonitoring should be specified in general. Background levels and ambient metal concentrations have to be observed in parallel.

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Abbreviations

AAS:

Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometry

BAF:

Biota Accumulation Factor

BCF:

Bioconcentration Factor

BMF:

Biomagnification Factor

BQE:

Biological Quality Element

C:

Element concentration

Cbckg :

Background concentration

CF:

Contamination Factor

Co :

Element concentration in an organism

Cw/s :

Element concentration in water/sediment

DEHP:

Di(2-ethylhexyl)-phthalate

DL:

Detection Limit

EA:

Environmental Alteration

EQR:

Ecological Quality Ratio

EQS:

Ecological Quality Standard

EU:

European Union

FAAS:

Furnace Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometry

GEA:

Global Environmental Alteration

GFAAS:

Graphite Furnace Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometry

HCH:

Hexachlorocyclohexanes

HPLC:

High Pressure Liquid Chromatography

IBMR:

Macrophyte Biological Index for Rivers

ICP-AES (ICP-OES):

Inductively Coupled Plasma Atomic Emission Spectroscopy (Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectrometry)

ICP-MS:

Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry

MAC:

Macrophyte Assessment and Classification

MACPACS:

MACrophyte Prediction And Classification System

MLD:

Methodological Limit of Determination

MTR:

Mean Trophic Rank

NAA:

Neutron Activation Analysis

PAH:

Polyaromatic Hydrocarbons

PCB:

Polychlorinated Biphenyls

pH:

Acidity

RHS:

River Habitat Survey

RSD%:

Relative Standard Deviation in percents

TIM:

Trophic Index of Macrophytes

WFD:

Water Framework Directive

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Acknowledgements

This review was completed through the combined efforts of the numerous scientists, who dedicated their researches on bryophytes and monitoring. Those authors have supported our interest in aquatic bryophytes and guided us. To all of them we are exceedingly grateful.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Plovdiv, 24 Tsar Assen Str, BG-4000, Plovdiv, Bulgaria

    Gana Gecheva

  2. Institute of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Acad. G. Bonchev Str., Bl. 23, BG-1113, Sofia, Bulgaria

    Lilyana Yurukova

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  1. Gana Gecheva
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  2. Lilyana Yurukova
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Correspondence to Gana Gecheva .

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  1. Agroécologie, UMR, Dijon, France

    Eric Lichtfouse

  2. Institute of Geology and Geochemistry of, RWTH Aachen, Aachen, Germany

    Jan Schwarzbauer

  3. ICPEES, Université de Lorraine, Saint-Avold, France

    Didier Robert

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Gecheva, G., Yurukova, L. (2013). Water Quality Monitoring by Aquatic Bryophytes. In: Lichtfouse, E., Schwarzbauer, J., Robert, D. (eds) Green Materials for Energy, Products and Depollution. Environmental Chemistry for a Sustainable World, vol 3. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6836-9_9

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