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The objectives of our survey were: to analyze the structure of macroinvetebrate communities in mountain streams in national parks and Biosphere Reserves (Poland, the Slovak Republic), to determine the environmental factors that influence the structure of macroinvertebrate communities and to assess the stream habitats including the bank and channel features, any modifications, land use and channel vegetation. Our results showed that in addition to the conductivity, the altitude, stream gradient and the values of the HQA index that reflected more natural features in the channel and river corridor were most important. The River Habitat Survey (RHS) method reflects not only the morphology but also the relationships between habitat features and the structure of macroinvertebrate communities and it provides a more holistic approach to assessing the health condition of stream ecosystems. Headwater streams support unique macroinvertebrate taxa that are found nowhere else in a catchment and may also constitute refuges for in-stream biota. Some of the least water pollution-tolerant macroinvertebrate taxa were recorded.

The aim of the study was to compare the patterns of development of macrophytes and macroinvertebrates in different types of reference mountain rivers. The study is based on reference river sites surveyed throughout the mountains in Poland and Slovakia in two European ecoregions (9—Central Highlands, 10—The Carpathians). A wide range of environmental variables were estimated, including water chemistry, hydromorphology, geology, and the spatial factor. Based on the Jaccard index, macrophyte and macroinvertebrate variation was confirmed between four mountain and upland river types. It was found that the biological diversification is mainly influenced by geological and associated chemical factors. In the case of macroinvertebrates, additionally, the importance of the spatial factor was revealed (difference between ecoregions). Finally, the habitat preferences of various taxa were identified. It was found that extreme mountain conditions can sometimes distort bioindicative response, as was detected in the case of macroinvertebrates in the highest mountain sites. We concluded that consideration of two groups of organisms enables more comprehensive and reliable monitoring than assessment based on a single group, especially when standard bioindicative methods can be distorted by extreme local conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The Macrophyte Index for Rivers (MIR) was developed in 2007, and it was one of the first biological methods developed in Poland under the requirements of the Water Framework Directive to assess the ecological status of running waters. It is based on the quantitative and qualitative evaluation of 153 indicator taxa. The aim of this study was to evaluate the ability of the MIR method to detect trophic degradation in rivers and to compare its efficiency with other macrophyte metrics. Our investigation was based on 100 sites, representing a very clear gradient from near oligotrophic to eutrophic conditions. The results showed that macrophytes can be distinguished in terms of their ecological requirements for nutrient concentration in water, and this can be used to develop an effective system of freshwater assessment. The MIR was shown to be the indicator most strongly correlated with various forms of nutrients, and it was demonstrated that calibration of the macrophyte method to local biogeographical conditions resulted in greater effectiveness of the assessment method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]