Journal of Environmental Biology

Concordance between macrophytes and macroinvertebrates in a Mediterranean river of central Apennine region 

Lorenzo Traversetti¹*, Massimiliano Scalici¹, Valeria Ginepri¹, Alessandro Manfrin^1,2 and Simona Ceschin¹

¹Department of Sciences, University Roma Tre, Rome, 00146, Italy

²Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology, Berlin, D-12587, Germany

*Corresponding Authors Email : lorenzo.traversetti@uniroma3.it

Publication Data

Paper received:

31 May 2013

Revised received:

03 October 2013

Revised received:

12 November 2013

Accepted:

03 December 2013

Abstract

The main aim of this study was to improve the knowledge about the concordance among macrophytes and macroinvertebrates to provide complementary information and facilitate the procedures for quality assessment of river ecosystems. Macrophytes and macroinvertebrates were collected in 11 sampling sites along a central Apennine calcareous river in October 2008 and June 2009. The concordance between the two biomonitoring groups was tested according to several environmental parameters. The comparison of data matrix similarities by Mantel test showed differences in the assemblage of macrophytes and macroinvertebrates along the river since correlation values were 0.04, p>0.05 in October 2008 and 0.39, p>0.05 in June 2009. The study revealed lack of concordance between the two groups, emphasizing that the information provided by macrophytes and macroinvertebrates does not overlap in terms of response to environmental parameters. Indeed, the two different biological groups resulted useful descriptors of different parameters. Together, they could represent a complementary tool to reflect the river environmental quality.  

 Key words

Central Italy, Concordance, Environmental quality, River biomonitoring, Water framework directive 

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