Bibliography
MICROPHYTOBENTHOS IN THE SUTLA RIVER
2009, 67 (4) p. 133-143
Marija Tomec, Zlatica Teskeredžić, Emin Teskeredžić
Abstract
The Sutla river is a river along Croatian/Slovenian border. Its length is about 91 km, out of which 89 km in Croatia. Microphytobenthos investigations have been performed at six locations along the Sutla river on Croatian territory. Samples were collected from specific areas of characteristic habitats. Beside sample collection, basic physico–chemical parameters were measured: water temperature, pH values and quantity of water dissolved oxygen. Water temperature changed depending on air temperature and the depth of the river, ranging from 5.1ºC to 6.3ºC. pH values were between 7.77 and 8.14, and dissolved oxygen concentrations (mg/L O2) at the six locations ranged between 8.6 mg/L and 14.9 mg/L. Quantitative microphytobenthos composition comprised 87 microphythic species belonging to the systematic groups of Bacteriophyta, Cyanobacteria and Chrysophyta (Bacillariophyceae and Xanthophyceae). The most numerous group were the diatoms or Bacillariophyceae (76 species or 88.3%), with dominance of the species of the genera Achnanthes, Cocconeis, Cymbella, Gomphonema, Navicula, Nitzschia and Surirella. The group Cyanobacteria was represented with relatively small number of species (9 species or 10%), with the dominance of filamentous algae belonging to the genus Phormidium. From the total number of the determined microphytobenthic species, 73 species or 84% were indicators of saprobity. Most of them were beta–mezosaprobic indicators. Based on the indicator values of determined microphytobenthic species at six investigated locations, P–B saprobity index was in the range from 1.8 to 2.0. These values suggested that the water at the investigated part of the Sutla river belonged to the second class of Croatian Water Quality Directive.