Preprint Article Version 1 Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed

Aquatic Insects (Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera and Trichoptera) metric as important tool in Water Quality Assessment in hilly and mountain streams

Bojana Tubić
* ORCID logo ,
Stefan Andjus
* ORCID logo ,
Katarina Zorić
ORCID logo ,
Božica Vasiljević
ORCID logo ,
Katarina Jovičić
,
Jelena Čanak Atlagić
,
Momir Paunović
ORCID logo
Version 1 : Received: 21 February 2024 / Approved: 21 February 2024 / Online: 21 February 2024 (10:05:06 CET)

A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.

Tubić, B.; Andjus, S.; Zorić, K.; Vasiljević, B.; Jovičić, K.; Čanak Atlagić, J.; Paunović, M. Aquatic Insects (Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera and Trichoptera) Metric as an Important Tool in Water Quality Assessment in Hilly and Mountain Streams. Water 2024, 16, 849. Tubić, B.; Andjus, S.; Zorić, K.; Vasiljević, B.; Jovičić, K.; Čanak Atlagić, J.; Paunović, M. Aquatic Insects (Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera and Trichoptera) Metric as an Important Tool in Water Quality Assessment in Hilly and Mountain Streams. Water 2024, 16, 849.

Abstract

The aim of the study was to test the significance of the EPT index in the water quality assessment of three types of water bodies in hilly and mountainous region of Serbia. The aquatic macroinvertebrate community was dominated by the group of insects, of which 95 taxa represent the EPT group. We compared the obtained values of biological indices used for the assessment of water quality according to the national legislation with the overall status assessment represented by the ecological quality classes (EQC). The results of the Spearman correlation test showed a negative correlation of EQC with the EPT index, BMWP score, H', total number of taxa and number of sensitive taxa, while a positive correlation was observed for the values of SI and Tubificinae %. The values of EQC and biological indices were subjected to principal component analysis (PCA). The results showed that the parameters that contributed most to the differences were the EPT index, the BMWP score and the number of sensitive taxa. The results indicate that the EPT index is an excellent indicator of changes in water quality and an important tool for the ecological categorization of water bodies in mountain regions.

Keywords

Aquatic insects; EPT group; diversity; biological indices; water quality assessment; hilly and mountain streams; Serbia

Subject

Biology and Life Sciences, Life Sciences

Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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