Papers

61,005 results
|
Article Tier 2

The microbial community and functional indicators response to flow restoration in gradient in a simulated water flume

Researchers examined how microbial community structure and functional indicators respond to gradient flow restoration in a simulated water flume, finding that flow regime significantly influences river ecological systems including functional indicators and microbial community composition.

2022 Frontiers in Microbiology 8 citations
Article Tier 2

Multispecies assemblages and multiple stressors: Synthesizing the state of experimental research in freshwaters

This synthesis of experimental freshwater research on multispecies assemblages under multiple stressors found that most studies used only two species and two stressors, revealing important knowledge gaps about how real-world complexity of biodiversity loss and combined pollution affects freshwater ecosystem function.

2023 Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews Water 18 citations
Article Tier 2

River ecosystem processes: A synthesis of approaches, criteria of use and sensitivity to environmental stressors

This synthesis reviewed approaches to studying river ecosystem processes, evaluating criteria for selecting sensitive indicators and methods for detecting ecological change driven by pollution and land-use pressures.

2017 The Science of The Total Environment 156 citations
Article Tier 2

Triggers for the Impoverishment of the Macroinvertebrate Communities in the Human-Impacted Rivers of Two Central European Ecoregions

This study investigated triggers for macroinvertebrate community impoverishment in human-impacted rivers across two Central European ecoregions, finding that hydromorphological degradation and invasive species introduction were stronger drivers of biodiversity loss than water chemistry alone.

2021 Water Air & Soil Pollution 11 citations
Article Tier 2

Tracking the effects of dam construction and restoration on side channel biodiversity using macrofossils in river sediment records

Researchers used macrofossil analysis of fluvial sediment cores to reconstruct the effects of dam construction and subsequent restoration on side-channel biodiversity in anthropized rivers, focusing on plant macrofossil records from recent sediment archives with high hydro-sedimentary dynamics. The study demonstrated that plant macrofossils preserved in river sediments provide a tractable proxy for detecting ecological responses to human infrastructure changes over decadal timescales.

2024 The Science of The Total Environment 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Monitoring of Rivers and Streams Conditions Using Biological Indices with Emphasis on Algae: A Comprehensive Descriptive Review toward River Management

This comprehensive review examines algal communities as biological indicators of river and stream health, covering how algal indices respond to changes in nutrient levels, salinity, flow regime, and other environmental variables relevant to river management and ecological assessment.

2023 IntechOpen eBooks 5 citations
Article Tier 2

Assessing land-use impacts on a 5th-order tropical river using multiple environmental indicators

Researchers combined multiple environmental indicators to assess the health of a tropical river system in Brazil affected by land-use change from agriculture and urbanization. Rivers in degraded landscapes also carry higher microplastic loads, and multi-indicator approaches provide a more complete picture of ecosystem health.

2021 Caderno de Geografia 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Nematodes as indicators of environmental changes in a river with different levels of anthropogenic impact

Researchers investigated whether nematode parasite communities in Geophagus brasiliensis fish could serve as bioindicators of environmental change in a river with varying pollution levels in Brazil. Changes in parasite diversity and abundance at three sampling points tracked environmental degradation, supporting nematodes as sensitive ecological health indicators.

2023 Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências 5 citations
Article Tier 2

Functional measures as potential indicators of down-the-drain chemical stress in freshwater ecological risk assessment

This review evaluated functional ecosystem measures — such as leaf litter decomposition and organic matter processing — as potential indicators of chemical pollution stress in freshwater systems. Using functional rather than solely species-based metrics could improve detection of how microplastics and other contaminants impair ecosystem processes.

2021 Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management 5 citations
Article Tier 2

Macroinvertebrates reveal environmental gradients: methods and method development in the Ob River basin

Researchers analyzed macroinvertebrate community composition along a 3,363-km section of the Ob River in Russia, the world's seventh longest river, examining how species richness, abundance, and biomass varied across sandy, silty, and rocky substrates. They found that longitudinal change patterns differed significantly by substrate type and that environmental gradients, particularly human pressures from agriculture, industry, and urbanization, strongly shaped community structure.

2023 Hydrobiologia 3 citations
Article Tier 2

Standardized Fuzzy Comprehensive Evaluation Biological Index Method for Ecosystem Health Evaluation in Large Waters of Aquaculture Type

Researchers developed a standardized fuzzy comprehensive evaluation biological index method for assessing ecosystem health in large aquaculture-type water bodies, providing a more nuanced tool for monitoring river and lake ecosystem conditions under increasing human environmental pressure.

2022 Academic Journal of Environmental Biology
Article Tier 2

Response of Freshwater Macroinvertebrate Communities to Various Anthropogenic Stressors in Lolab Streams- A Lotic System of the Indian Himalayan Region

Researchers evaluated how multiple anthropogenic stressors including pollution and altered water chemistry affect freshwater macroinvertebrate communities in Himalayan streams, finding that community composition served as an effective bioindicator of human-induced environmental degradation in this temperate lotic system.

2022 International Journal of Environment and Climate Change 6 citations
Article Tier 2

Predicting effects of multiple interacting global change drivers across trophic levels

Researchers proposed a framework using reaction norms to predict how multiple interacting global change drivers simultaneously affect vital rates and population dynamics across trophic levels, addressing a key challenge in ecology and conservation.

2022 Global Change Biology 35 citations
Article Tier 2

Community Structure of Benthic Macroinvertebrates as Bioindicators of Water Quality in the Upstream Setail River, Banyuwangi, East Java, Indonesia

Researchers assessed the community structure of benthic macroinvertebrates as bioindicators of water quality in the upstream reach of the Setail River in Banyuwangi, East Java, Indonesia, which has experienced declining water quality due to surrounding human activities. The study used macroinvertebrate assemblage composition and diversity indices to characterize ecological status and identify pollution pressure along the river corridor.

2025 Egyptian Journal of Aquatic Biology and Fisheries
Article Tier 2

Assessing the Ecological Effects of Multiple Stressors in River and Stream Ecosystems

This doctoral research examines sources, sinks, and ecological impacts of plastics and other chemical contaminants as multiple stressors in river and stream ecosystems, applying contaminant mixture analysis at multiple biological levels from sub-organismal to ecosystem scale.

2024 TSpace
Article Tier 2

Aquatic insect biodiversity, water quality variables, and microplastics in the living weir freshwater ecosystem

Researchers assessed water quality, aquatic insect biodiversity, and microplastic contamination along a Thai river system with and without living weirs. They found that living weirs improved habitat conditions for aquatic insects while also influencing microplastic distribution patterns. The study demonstrates that nature-based river structures can support biodiversity while providing insights into how infrastructure affects plastic pollution.

2024 Ecologica Montenegrina 5 citations
Article Tier 2

Interactive Threats: Multi-stress Systems in Aquatic Environments

Researchers examined how aquatic organisms face multiple simultaneous stressors — including plastic pollution, climate change, altered pH, and habitat loss — finding that the combined interactive effects of these threats are poorly understood yet critical to developing effective conservation and management strategies.

2023 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Aquatic ecosystem indices, linking ecosystem health to human health risks

Researchers reviewed indicators used to assess aquatic ecosystem health and found that most existing tools don't adequately capture the risks that degraded water ecosystems pose to human health and well-being. They propose a new set of combined indicators — covering chemical contaminants, pathogens, and biological markers — to better link ecosystem health monitoring to human health outcomes.

2025 Biodiversity and Conservation 14 citations
Article Tier 2

Assessing the Ecological Status of European Rivers and Lakes Using Benthic Invertebrate Communities: A Practical Catalogue of Metrics and Methods

A comprehensive catalog of benthic invertebrate metrics used across 26 EU national assessment systems for rivers and 21 for lakes was compiled, identifying the range of biological indices and methodological approaches currently used to evaluate ecological status under the Water Framework Directive.

2021 Water 47 citations
Article Tier 2

Water Quality Analysis and Its Impact on Biodiversity in Freshwater Ecosystems

Researchers measured physicochemical water quality parameters and biological communities at five freshwater sites with varying degrees of anthropogenic disturbance, using correlation analysis, PCA, and cluster analysis to link water quality to aquatic biodiversity. They found strong positive correlations between dissolved oxygen and species richness, and significant negative associations between BOD, nitrate, heavy metals, and biodiversity, concluding that degraded water quality directly compromises freshwater ecosystem function.

2025 Aquapolis.
Article Tier 2

Road crossings change functional diversity and trait composition of stream-dwelling macroinvertebrate assemblages

This study found that road crossings at stream intersections alter the functional diversity and trait composition of stream macroinvertebrate communities, with functional changes reflecting the habitat degradation caused by road-related runoff and connectivity disruption.

2023 Scientific Reports 3 citations
Article Tier 2

Partitioning fish communities into guilds for ecological analyses: an overview of current approaches and future directions

This review examined approaches to partitioning fish communities into functional guilds for ecological analyses, evaluating how guild-based groupings can simplify community analysis and help study functional diversity and community responses to environmental disturbances including pollution.

2021 Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 31 citations
Article Tier 2

Long-term trends in stream benthic macroinvertebrate communities are driven by chemicals

This paper is not about microplastics. It investigates long-term trends in stream macroinvertebrate communities in Germany from 2007 to 2021, finding that in-stream chemical pollution data explained about 50% of the variation in biodiversity changes over time. The study focuses on freshwater ecology and the effects of water chemistry, land use, and temperature on aquatic invertebrate diversity, with no specific focus on microplastic contamination.

2023 Environmental Sciences Europe 22 citations
Article Tier 2

What Determines the Future Ecological Risks of Wastewater Discharges in River Networks: Load, Location or Climate Change?

Researchers developed a systematic framework for assessing future ecological risks from wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) effluents in river networks by combining plant size class as a proxy for pollutant load with stream order as a proxy for discharge location, applying it under climate change scenarios to show that streamflow reduction in receiving rivers will significantly worsen ecological risk even without increases in pollutant loads.

2022