Documentos de Académico
Documentos de Profesional
Documentos de Cultura
433
© 1995 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printedin Belgium.
Key words: diatoms, periphyton, monitoring, phosphate, eutrophication, rivers, Urban Wastewater Treatment
Directive
Abstract
A index for monitoring the trophic status of rivers based on diatom composition ('trophic diatom index', TDI)
has been developed, in response to the National Rivers Authority (England & Wales)'s needs under the terms
of the Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive of the European Community. The index is based on a suite of 86
taxa selected both for their indicator value and ease of identification. When tested on a dataset from 70 sites
free of significant organic pollution, this index was more highly correlated with aqueous P concentrations than
previous diatom indices. However, where there was heavy organic pollution, it was difficult to separate the effects
of eutrophication from other effects. For this reason, the value of TDI is supplemented by an indication of the
proportion of the sample that is composed of taxa tolerant to organic pollution.
The index was tested on the R. Browney, N-E. England, above and below a major sewage discharge. TDI values
indicated that the effect of inorganic nutrients on the river downstream of the discharge was slight as the river
was already nutrient-rich, but there was a large increase in the proportion of organic pollution-tolerant taxa. This
indicates that the river was already so eutrophic upstream of the discharge that tertiary treatment to remove P would
not be effective unless other aspects of the discharge were also improved.