TY  - JOUR
AB  - Assessments of the ecological status of freshwater ecosystems, such as mandated by the EU Water Framework 
Directive, are routinely conducted by monitoring macroinvertebrates. However, for the quality assessment of fine 
sediments, macroinvertebrates are of limited suitability. In such habitats they show a low species diversity and 
often low densities, whereas a more diverse meiofauna can be found. Among the meiofaunal groups in benthic 
habitats, nematodes are one of the most abundant and species-rich. Fine, cohesive sediments considerably 
contribute to many ecosystem services, but they are often hotspots of chemical contamination as well. In the 
present study, the added value of the recently developed and validated NemaSPEAR[%]-index was evaluated by 
directly comparing it to routinely used macrofauna-based indices. Macrofaunal and nematode communities were 
synchronously monitored at seven sites in six different streams. The results of a chemical analysis of sediment 
pollutants combined with sediment quality guidelines revealed widely diverging toxic potentials at the seven 
investigated locations. The seasonal robustness of the NemaSPEAR[%]-index compared with macrofauna-based 
indices was also determined, by additionally obtaining synchronous samples of macrofauna and nematodes over 
the course of one year at one of the seven sites, a reference stream with very low toxic potential. 
The NemaSPEAR[%] performed robustly despite seasonal variations in the nematode community in the 
sediment of the unpolluted stream. At the seven sampling sites, representing a pollution gradient, the Nem-
aSPEAR[%]-index correlated well with the toxic potential of the sediments. By contrast, the macrofauna-based 
indices did not correlate significantly with either the toxic potential of the sediments or with the results of 
NemaSPEAR[%] at the seven sites. For many non– endobenthic macroinvertebrates, chemical exposure is mostly 
through the water phase, such that the toxic potential of the sediments will not necessarily be reflected directly 
by macrofaunal indices. Accordingly, identifying the stressors that contribute to degrading the ecological status 
of a water body requires the inclusion of methods that examine different types of stressors, targets, and exposure 
pathways. Our study shows that the NemaSPEAR[%]-index provides added value to routinely used macrofaunal- 
based indices.
DA  - 2021
DO  - 10.1016/j.ecolind.2020.107015
LA  - eng
PY  - 2021
SN  - 1470-160X
T2  - Ecological Indicators
TI  - Added value of the NemaSPEAR[%]-index to routinely used macrofauna-based indices for assessing the quality of freshwater sediments
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:0070-pub-29503357
Y2  - 2024-12-26T06:46:51
ER  -