@conference{
author = "Живић, Ивана and Остојић, Александар and Миљановић, Бранко and Марковић, Зоран",
year = "2018",
abstract = "Despite the fact that it represents only a small part of the total amount of
water on the planet (1.2%), land-based water is very significant for man. The
demographic explosion that marked the 20th century on the one hand caused
constant growth of the need for pure water and on the other hand increased
the extent of water pollution due to development of industry, intensification of
agriculture and expansion of urban regions. Human action leads to greater or
lesser changes of ecological factors in aquatic ecosystems (amount of dissolved
oxygen, pH, heavy metal concentration, etc.), regulation of watercourses,
disruption of communication between biocoenoses and disturbance of the
natural water regime (through the creation of reservoirs). All of this brings
about changes in biocoenoses that can be very pronounced, going even so far
as to the virtual destruction of life in an aquatic ecosystem or in less severe
cases to replacement of an existing biocoenosis by a new one that due to greater
homogeneity of ecological factors is characterized by lower diversity.
In order to conserve the water resources of the Republic of Serbia, it
is necessary to monitor them closely. Biomonitoring is an obligatory part of
this task because it is a simple, fast and economical way to follow the state of
ecosystems of land-based water. Of all groups of aquatic organisms used in
biomonitoring: bacteria, protozoans, zooplankton, phytobenthos, macrophytes
and fish, macroinvertebrates are the most widely employed, especially in streams, where they are absolutely the most significant community of
bioindicatory organisms.
Modern biomonitoring of streams both in the world at large and in
Serbia is based to the greatest extent on the use of macroinvertebrates as
bioindicators of water quality owing to their many advantages over other
aquatic organisms. Macroinvertebrates are widely disseminated organisms that
inhabit various types of aquatic ecosystems, from little temporary (ephemeral)
stagnant pools, small springs and creeks to large lakes and rivers. The great
diversity of macrozoobenthic organisms and extremely complex structure of
their communities on the one hand make them very sensitive to anthropogenic
action causing changes of ecological factors, and on the other hand enable them
potentially to respond with changes in the composition of their biocoenoses
that are proportional to intensity of the anthropogenic action in question.
Such organisms are characterized by the ability to persist in conditions of fast
flowing water because they live attached to the bottom, possess long life cycles
and have limited mobility. Their low mobility and sedentary way of life enable
the investigator to establish the state of ecological factors on a given area.
The relatively long life cycles (lasting 2–3 years) of these organisms make it
possible to investigate changes occurring over the course of time. Apart from
biological considerations, there are also numerous practical reasons why these
organisms are considered good indicators of water quality: samples are taken
with relatively inexpensive equipment; the taxonomy of most groups has been
thoroughly elaborated; keys for their identification are available; methods that
employ macrozoobenthic organisms have been used for many years and are
highly reliable; and the responses of certain organisms to different types and
levels of pollution have been precisely defined.
Мacrozoobenthic organisms can be used to test the influence of
anthropogenic stress on aquatic biotopes at all levels of biological organization,
from molecular to ecosystematic. The effects of pollution on these organisms
under natural conditions are most often analysed on the level of their populations
or communities, using structural attributes (measured by indexes of diversity
and similarity, biotic indexes, etc.) or functional characteristics, including,
for example, primary production, respiratory processes, biomass (secondary
production) and circulation of elements, but also aspects of the organisms’ life
history such as functional guilds in the feeding of a taxon.
Investigation of macrozoobenthic communities has been and will be
a central part of the ecology of land-based water, partly due to the fact that
streams for them represent a crucial link between resources in the form of
organic matter (for example, fallen leaves, algae, detritus, etc.) and fish in food
webs, and partly due to the diversity and wide dissemination of the organisms
involved. In view of these facts, it is unsurprising that systematic research on the
fauna of macroinvertebrates in land-based water of Serbia was initiated almost
a century ago and has been carried out in continuity with varying intensity up to the present day. More intensive use of macroinvertebrates in biomonitoring
of the ecosystems of land-based water in Serbia, as in the world at large, began
around the middle of the last century, at which time they started to be included
in monitoring of water quality by the Hydrometeorological Institute of Serbia.
As can be seen from the above, Serbian science actively followed world
trends in biomonitoring of land-based water from the very start, although
the intensity of these investigations was highly variable. Intensification of
research on macroinvertebrates and their use in biomonitoring of land-based
water occurred during the 1990s, with the formation in Novi Sad, Belgrade
and Kragujevac of several independent teams of investigators that laid a solid
foundation for further progress, as is evident in a series of studies introducing
new and modern methods of biomonitoring, methods such as employment
of biomarkers, recording of morphological asymmetries and deformities and
use of artificial neuron networks. To be specific, the work of these teams has
greatly advanced available knowledge about biology of the macroinvertebrates
of land-based water in Serbia and continued to keep pace with world trends in
their use for biomonitoring. A good example is the development of BNBI and
incorporation of a number of EU standard methods into norms for regulation of
biomonitoring in Serbia. Despite this positive trend, it must be stated that the
use of macroinvertebrates as bioindicators of the quality of land-based water
in Serbia is relatively limited because in the majority of cases it is done within
the framework of saprobiological analyses, whereas biotic indexes are for the
most part unjustifiably ignored, while multimetric indexes and the multivariant
approach have not even begun to be employed.
For these reasons, the state of biomomitoring in Serbia still cannot
be considered satisfactory. To be specific, if the extent of land-based water
biomonitoring in Great Britain where it is continuously conducted at more than
6000 localities is compared with the state of affairs in Serbia where about 90
localities out of a planned 500 are continuously monitored it can be seen that
the level of biomonitoring in our country is disproportionally lower. Moreover,
a comparison of stream quality in Great Britain, despite that country’s
significantly more advanced industrial development and greater population
density, with the situation in Serbia shows that the quality of streams in our
country is conspicuously far worse. It is clearly necessary to expand the volume
and content of biomonitoring because only in that way will it be possible to
make correct decisions in the management of water resources and thereby
improve their quality. Meanwhile, at the existing level of macroinvertebrate
studies in Serbia, that is not simply a question of political willingness, but also
a task limited by the quality and quantity of fundamental research. As has been
stated before, successful use of macroinvertebrates in biomonitoring demands
an exceptionally good knowledge of the base reference state. That at the present
time calls for additional faunistic, taxonomic, biogeographic and toxicological
research, as well as studies on the typization of watercourses. It will be possible to define groups of reference localities in Serbia, as has been done in Great
Britain, only if the inventory of species in our country is known in detail, if
taxonomic problems are resolved, if keys for the identification of species are
available, if their range has been clarified and if the types of watercourses and
their ecological status (condition) are known. This in turn will make it possible
to apply some highly organized system of biomonitoring like RIVPACS or
to develop a multimetric index like the ones elaborated in the EU’s AQEM
program.
That the path to this goal is long is clearly indicated by the fact although
acknowledged experts today exist for the taxonomy of macroinvertebrate
groups such as Chironomidae, Oligochaeta, Heteroptera, Trichoptera,
Amphipoda and Gastropoda, research on a number of very important groups
such as Ephemeroptera and Plecoptera has only just begun, a situation that
has a significant effect on the quality and reliability of determination of these
groups, knowledge about their distribution and awareness of their ecological
preferences, as well as on the typization of land-based water habitats in Serbia
vis-a-vis other countries in the world. Progress in this area largely depends
on politics of the state, that is on the measure in which it is ready to support
studies, finance the necessary increase in the number of researchers and
through selection of programs and projects guide investigative efforts in an
appropriate direction. It is also necessary to widen the network of localities at
which sampling is prescribed by law, since only by sampling in an organized
and planned manner will it be possible to collect an adequate number of
data in a procedurally uniform way permitting the drawing of comparisons,
development of new biomononitoring methods in Serbia and improvement of
ones already in existence. That is the only way to form a standardized database
of information about the ecosystems of Serbian streams. Such a database will
be the foundation needed for the standardization of reference localities, which
represents a key step toward the implementation of both multivariant and
multimetric methods in biomonitoring., Да би се водни ресурси Републике Србије очували, неопходно је будно пратити њихово стање. Биомониторинг је неизоставни део овог
поступка јер на једноставан, брз, економичан и свеобухватан начин прати стање
екосистема копнених вода. Од живог света у копненим водама, макроинвертебрате (голим оком видљиви бескичмењаци) чине једну од најбољих биоиндикаторских група организама за процену стања акватичних екосистема због своје
везаности за дно, дугог животног циклуса (2‒3 године) и ограничене могућности
кретања. Стога је развијен велики број метода које квантификују биоиндикатор-
ска својства ове групе, а све у покушају да се максимализују њихове добре био-
индикаторске особине, а минимализују недостаци. Од мноштва метода, у Србији се у стандардном биомониторингу, али и у истраживачком процесу, користе
пре свега сапробни индекси, индекси диверзитета и биотички индекси. Иако су
ово релевантне мере стања екосистема копнених вода, које се користе и у другим
европским земљама, основни недостатак је одсуство регионалности сапробних
и биотичких индекса за територију Србије (са изузетком Балканског биотичког индекса), где није извршено прилагођавање индекса са регионалним специфич-
ностима насеља акватичних бескичмењака. Други недостатак је потпуно одсуство примене, у стандардном мониторингу, сложенијих и свеобухватнијих метода попут мултиметријских индекса и мултиваријантног приступа који се са великим успехом широко примењују у свету. Разлог за ово може бити и заостатак у
познавању фаунистике, таксономије, распрострањења и еколошких преференци
организама макроинвертебрата, као и у типизацији станишта копнених вода у
Србији, у односу на остале земље у свету. Међутим, у последње три деценије,
упркос тешком материјалном стању и недовољној, посебно систематичној бри-
зи државе, направљени су значајни помаци радом неколико независних истраживачких група. Те групе су поставиле солидну основу за даљи напредак. који
се јасно може и видети кроз низ појединачних истраживања. Ова истраживања
уводе нове и савремене методе биомониторинга, попут биомаркера, морфолош-
ких асиметрија и деформитета и вештачких неуронских мрежа. Поред улагања
у истраживања која су неопходна за стварање услова за систематско увођење
нових, осетљивијих и ефикаснијих метода мониторинга, неопходно је и значајно
проширити мрежу локалитета који се стандардно узоркују ради биомониторинга у Србији. То је једини начин да се оформи стандардизована база података о
екосистемима копнених вода која ће бити неопходна основа за стандардизацију
референтних локалитета, што је кључни корак ка имплементацији како мултиваријантних, тако и мултиметријских метода у биомониторингу.",
publisher = "Београд : Српска академија наука и уметности",
journal = "Eколошки и економски значај фауне Србије : зборник радова са научног скупа 17. новембар 2016.",
title = "Макроинвертебрате текућих вода Србије и њихов биоиндикаторски значај у процени квалитета воде, Macroinvertebrates of Serbian streams and their significance as bioindicators in estimation of water quality",
pages = "199-229",
url = "https://hdl.handle.net/21.15107/rcub_dais_10680"
}
