Relationship between potentially toxic elements and macrophyte communities in the Sava river
Snežana Jarić,
Branko Karadžić,
Momir Paunović,
Radmila Milačič,
Janez Ščančar,
Olga Kostić,
Tea Zuliani,
Janja Vidmar,
Zorana Miletić,
Stefan Anđus,
Miroslava Mitrović,
Pavle Pavlović
Affiliations
Snežana Jarić
Department of Ecology, Institute for Biological Research ‘Siniša Stanković’ University of Belgrade, Bul. Despota Stefana 142, 11060 Belgrade, Serbia; Corresponding author.
Branko Karadžić
Department of Ecology, Institute for Biological Research ‘Siniša Stanković’ University of Belgrade, Bul. Despota Stefana 142, 11060 Belgrade, Serbia
Momir Paunović
Department of Hydroecology and Water Protection, Institute for Biological Research ‘Siniša Stanković’ University of Belgrade, Bul. Despota Stefana 142, 11060 Belgrade, Serbia
Radmila Milačič
Department of Environmental Sciences, Jožef Stefan Institute, Jamova cesta 39, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
Janez Ščančar
Department of Environmental Sciences, Jožef Stefan Institute, Jamova cesta 39, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
Olga Kostić
Department of Ecology, Institute for Biological Research ‘Siniša Stanković’ University of Belgrade, Bul. Despota Stefana 142, 11060 Belgrade, Serbia
Tea Zuliani
Department of Environmental Sciences, Jožef Stefan Institute, Jamova cesta 39, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
Janja Vidmar
Department of Environmental Sciences, Jožef Stefan Institute, Jamova cesta 39, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
Zorana Miletić
Department of Ecology, Institute for Biological Research ‘Siniša Stanković’ University of Belgrade, Bul. Despota Stefana 142, 11060 Belgrade, Serbia
Stefan Anđus
Department of Hydroecology and Water Protection, Institute for Biological Research ‘Siniša Stanković’ University of Belgrade, Bul. Despota Stefana 142, 11060 Belgrade, Serbia
Miroslava Mitrović
Department of Ecology, Institute for Biological Research ‘Siniša Stanković’ University of Belgrade, Bul. Despota Stefana 142, 11060 Belgrade, Serbia
Pavle Pavlović
Department of Ecology, Institute for Biological Research ‘Siniša Stanković’ University of Belgrade, Bul. Despota Stefana 142, 11060 Belgrade, Serbia
Freshwater ecosystems are at significant risk of contamination by potentially toxic elements (PTEs) due to their high inherent toxicity, their persistence in the environment and their tendency to bioaccumulate in sediments and living organisms. We investigated aquatic macrophyte communities and the concentrations of As, Cu, Cd, Cr, Pb, Zn, Ni and Fe in water and sediment samples to identify a pollution pattern along the Sava River and to investigate the potential impact of these PTEs on the diversity and structure of macrophyte communities. The study, which covered 945 km of the Sava River, showed a downstream increase in sediment concentrations of the analyzed elements. Both species richness and alpha diversity of macrophyte communities also generally increase downstream. Ordinary and partial Mantel tests indicate that macrophyte communities are significantly correlated with sediment chemistry, but only weakly correlated with water chemistry. In the lowland regions (downstream), beta diversity decreases successively, which can be attributed to an increasing similarity of environmental conditions at downstream sites. Species richness is relatively low at sites with low concentrations of Cr, Cd, Fe, and Cu in the sediment. However, species richness increases to a certain extent with increasing element concentrations; as element concentrations increase further, species richness decreases, probably as a result of increased toxicity. Some species that are generally more tolerant to high concentrations of PTEs are: Ceratophyllum demersum, Iris pseudacorus, Najas marina, Butomus umbellatus, Vallisneria spiralis, Potamogeton gramineus and Bolboschoenus maritimus maritimus. Potamogeton perfoliatus and the moss species Cinclidotus fontinaloides and Fontinalis antipyretica have narrow ecological amplitudes in relation to the concentrations of PTEs in the sediment.
