Modern Trends in Applied Aquatic Ecology

388 Pages·2003·15.11 MB·English

by  Jacob John (auth.)

Modem Trends in Applied
Aquatic Ecology
Modem Trends in Applied
Aquatic Ecology
Edited by
s.
R. Ambasht and
Navin K. Ambasht
Banaras Hindu University
Varanasi, India
Springer-Science+Business Media, LLC
ISBN 978-1-4613-4972-3 ISBN 978-1-4615-0221-0 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-4615-0221-0
© 2003 Springer-Science+Business Media New York
Originally published by Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers in 2003
Softcover reprint ofthe hardcover Ist edition 2003
10987654321
Ali rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording, or otherwise,
without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied
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use by the purchaser of the work.
CONTRIBUTORS LIST
1. Jacob John
Postgraduate Coordinator School of Environmental Biology
Curtin University
GPO Box U1987, Perth, WA 6845
AUSTRALIA
E-Mail: [email protected]
2. Paul A. Keddy
Department of Biological Sciences
Southeastern Louisiana University
Hammond, Louisiana, USA
E-Mail: [email protected]
3. Lauchlan H. Fraser
Department of Biology
University of Akron
Akron, OH 44325-3908, USA
E-Mail: [email protected]
4. Brian Whitton
School of Biological and Biomedical Sciences
University of Durham
Durham DHI 3LE, UNITED KINGDOM
E-Mail: [email protected]
5. Alain Vanderpoorten
Department of Botany
Duke University
P.O. Box 90339
Durham, NC 27708, USA
E-Mail: [email protected]
[email protected]
v
vi Contributors list
6. Lisandro Benedetti-Cecchi
Dipartimento di Scienze dell'Uomo e dell'Ambiente
Universitit di Pisa
Via A Volta 6, 1-56126 Pisa
ITALY
E-Mail: [email protected]
7. Donat-P. Hider
Friedrich-Alexander Universitiit Erlangen-Niimberg
Institut fUr Botanik und Pharmazeutische Biologie
Staudstr. 5, D-91058 Erlangen
GERMANY
E-Mail: [email protected]
8. H. E. Zagarese
Centro Regional Universitario Bariloche
Universidad Nacional del Comahue
8400 - San Carlos de Bariloche
ARGENTINA
E-Mail: [email protected]
9. Barbara Tartarotti
Institute of Zoology and Limnology
University of Innsbruck
Technikerstrasse 25, 6020 Innsbruck
AUSTRIA
E-Mail: [email protected]
10. D. A. Anon Suarez
Centro Regional Universitario Bariloche
Universidad Nacional del Comahue
8400 - San Carlos de Bariloche
ARGENTINA
E-Mail: [email protected]
11. Rajeshwar P. Sinha
Friedrich-Alexander Universitiit Erlangen - Niimberg
Institut flir Botanik und Pharmazeutische Biologie
Staudstr. 5, D-91058 Erlangen
GERMANY
E-Mail: [email protected]
12. Nandor Oertel
Hungarian Danube Research Station
Hungarian Academy of Science
God, HUNGARY
Contributors list vii
13. Janos Salanki
Balaton Lirnnological Research Institute
Hungarian Academy of Science
Tihany, Pf35, 8237
HUNGARY
E-Mail: [email protected]
14. Arthur J. McComb
School of Environmental Science
Murdoch University
Perth, WA 6150, AUSTRALIA
E-Mail: [email protected]
15. Jane M. Chambers
School of Environmental Science
Murdoch University
Perth, WA 6150, AUSTRALIA
E-Mail: [email protected]
16. R. S. Ambasht
Honorary Scientist
Department of Botany
Banaras Hindu University
Varanasi - 221 005, INDIA
E-Mail: [email protected]
17. Navin K. Ambasht
Ecology Research Laboratory
Department of Botany
Banaras Hindu University
Varanasi - 221 005, INDIA
E-Mail: [email protected]
18. Robert Zwahlen
Environment and Social Development Specialist
Electrowatt Engineering Ltd (EWE)
P.O. Box 8037
Hardturmstr. 161, Zurich
SWITZERLAND
E-Mail: [email protected]
PREFACE
Organisms and environment have evolved through modifying each other over millions of
years. Humans appeared very late in this evolutionary time scale. With their superior brain
attributes, humans emerged as the most dominating influence on the earth. Over the
millennia, from simple hunter-food gatherers, humans developed the art of agriculture,
domestication of animals, identification of medicinal plants, devising hunting and fishing
techniques, house building, and making clothes. All these have been for better adjustment,
growth, and survival in otherwise harsh and hostile surroundings and climate cycles of
winter and summer, and dry and wet seasons. So humankind started experimenting and
acting on ecological lines much before the art of reading, writing, or arithmetic had
developed. Application of ecological knowledge led to development of agriculture, animal
husbandry, medicines, fisheries, and so on. Modem ecology is a relatively young science
and, unfortunately, there are so few books on applied ecology. The purpose of ecology is to
discover the principles that govern relationships among plants, animals, microbes, and
their total living and nonliving environmental components. Ecology, however, had
remained mainly rooted in botany and zoology. It did not permeate hard sciences,
engineering, or industrial technologies leading to widespread environmental degradation,
pollution, and frequent episodes leading to mass deaths and diseases. Awareness of the
dimensions of environmental problems threatening not only to the fast-deteriorating
quality of human life but also survival has been generated by the United Nations
Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED; Rio de Janeiro, 1992) and
subsequent efforts of governments and nongovernment organizations. In this direction,
there is an acute need for books on applied ecology. With the experience of writing our
highly popular book, A Textbook ofP lant Ecology (14th edition in press), we undertook the
task of preparing this multiauthored volume. In recent years, wetlands have drawn world
attention, particularly through the Ramsar Convention, IUCN, International Association of
Ecology Wetland Group, and UNEP. Water is vitally required by all organisms; it is the
medium of life processes and nutrient transports in plants. Water is the ultimate source of
atmospheric oxygen. Surface water flows have built extensive, productive alluvial plains
all over the world. Therefore, application of ecology in managing water quality and aquatic
organisms, and impact ofUV-B enhancement responses to other stresses in wetlands form
ix
x Preface
the main themes of this book. Specific topics and subject specialists were identified. These
world authorities have produced different chapters.
Jacob John, at the outset, has explained the concept of aquatic system health and
attributes of biomonitors. Ubiquitous diatoms have been found to be an ideal tool in
preparing predictive models for the health of aquatic systems. Case studies of Western
Australia and South Western Australia have greatly helped to validate the conclusions.
Keddy and Fraser have developed four principles involved in the management of
biodiversity in wetlands: (1) water level fluctuations (depth), (2) fertility range from
distinctly infertile to highly fertile zones, (3) competitive hierarchies, and (4) centrifugal
organizations of species from fertile, sheltered sites to infertile sites. In managing aquatic
ecosystems, we must expand from traditional natural systems to constructed wetlands for
treatment of wastewater. Lotic bodies such as rivers with highly dynamic seasonal phases
and fluxes are important types of aquatic bodies. Brian Whitton has highlighted the
importance of indicator plants to monitor heavy metals in rivers. Aquatic bryophytes are
sensitive to changes in water chemistry. Vanderpoorten has shown how, through calibration
techniques, aquatic bryophytes may be used for predicting water chemistry with least
prediction errors. The value of the chapter is enhanced by explaining the limits of
transposing regional models. Improved knowledge of ecophysiology is needed. The
concept of succession tells about the ever-changing nature of biotic communities and
environmental complexes, and has widely applied implications. Bendetti-Cecchi has
contributed a comprehensive discussion on current understanding of plant succession in
littoral habitats. There are large gaps in understanding of variable patterns of recovery that
preclude accurate predictions. Most of the lakes and rivers have become the dumping place
of wastes. They are presently experiencing symptoms of eutrophication, siltation, and
contamination by toxic chemicals, heavy metals, and secondary ~alinization, which put
great stress on aquatic vertebrates. Artificial wetlands created by extensive mining in the
form of mine-voids or pit wetlands can be utilized for aquaculture and biodiversity
conservation. Phytoremediation, that is, environmental remediation of contaminated soil
and water by hyperaccumulator plants, is assuming great applied ecological importance.
Jacob John has elaborated this energy-friendly or "green" tool of use of algae for
remediation of mine-voids and other degraded wetlands. With regard to enhancing UV
B levels at the surface of aquatic bodies, Hader has elaborated UV-B radiation impacts on
primary producers found in freshwater and marine ecosystems. Bacterioplankton are more
susceptible to UV-B than larger, eukaryotic organisms, and bacteria are the major
degraders of organic material. Phytoplankton is the most important biomass producer of
aquatic ecosystems. Protective mechanisms against UV-B by bacteria, cyanobacteria, and
macroalgae are explained. Zagarese, Tartarotti, and Afton Suarez have regarded solar UV
radiation as a strong and ubiquitous force in aquatic ecosystems. It causes impairment of
essential biomolecules (nucleic acids and proteins), damage to exposed parts by way of
sunburns and cataracts, and depression of immune systems. Indirectly, it photoactivates
chemical pollutants. All these aspects ofUV-B impacts are reviewed by Zagarese et al. and
Sinha has reviewed responses of cyanobacteria to other kinds of stresses.
Aquatic ecosystems, the main receiving body of the runoff material from excessively
pesticide-loaded agricultural fields and toxic materials released into the environment by
modem anthropogenic activities, need to be studied for life forms that have biomonitoring
and bioindicator values. Oertel and Salanki have elaborately defined biomonitoring and its
relationship t() toxicology. Origin of types of toxic chemicals and their effects on river and
lake ecosystems, accumulation and synergism, action mechanisms, advantages, and
Preface xi
limitations of biological versus chemical monitoring are nicely reviewed by McComb and
Chambers. Biological early warning systems (BEWSs) such as fish and multi sensor
monitors of the Rhine Action Program are described, together with advantages and
shortages.
Ambasht and Ambasht have reviewed work on the conservation role of ecotonal
vegetation in checking soil erosion, water runoff, and nutrient losses across embankment
slopes of river corridors and lake margins. Proper application of research results in
selection of plants, naturally growing and artificially planted on sloping margins of
wetlands, that can prevent eutrophication, siltation, upwelling of rivers, lakes, dam
water storages, and floods considerably. Finally, Zwahlen has taken up the entirely man
made aquatic ecosystems created by dam projects for "identification," assessment, and
mitigation of environmental impacts. The chapter is of immense value to students as well
as to policymakers and executors of high dams at a very early stage of the planning
process. Otherwise, if the project is contested at the half-way point, not for engineering but
environmental and social reasons, then delay causes not only loss of time but also colossal
loss of extra money. Zwahlen's chapter provides necessary information required at the
early stage of planning of Dam projects and watershed management programs.
Acknowledgements
During the course of preparation and publication we received help from many people
and thank them all. We are particularly grateful to all the chapter authors, who very readily
agreed to take the trouble of writing these chapters, with the purpose of introducing the
topics and then discussing the latest findings, ideas, and concepts from applied ecology
viewpoints. We are indeed so grateful to our editor, Andrea Macaluso, and others at
Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers for taking great interest and more than normal pains
in giving a proper shape to the volume and publishing it so nicely and in such a short time.
For his help during the preparatory phase, we thank Dr. R. Prasad. We also thank our
family members Mrs. Annpuma, Dr. Pravin, Mrs. Sandhya, Mrs. Anupama, Ms. Prakriti,
Ms Sukriti, and Ms. Soumya for their help and forbearance.
We are thankful to the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, New Delhi, for
awarding Emeritus Scientistship to RSA and Senior Research Associateship to NKA, and
the authorities of the Banaras Hindu University for providing facilities. Thanks are also
due to the Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi for the award of Honorary
Scietistship to RSA.
R. S. Ambasht
Navin K. Ambasht
Banaras Hindu University, India
CONTENTS
1. Jacob John (Australia) Bioassessment of Health of Aquatic
Curtin University Systems by the Use of Diatoms
2. Paul A. Keddy & Lauchlan H. Fraser (USA) The Management of Wetlands for
Univ. Louisiana & Univ. of Akron Biological Diversity: Four Principles 21
3. Brian A. Whitton (UK) Use of Plants in Monitoring Heavy
Durham University Metals in Freshwaters 43
4. Alain Vanderpoorten (USA) Hydrochemical Determinism,
Duke Univ., Durham NC Ecological Polymorphism, and
Indicator Values of Aquatic
Bryophytes for Water Quality 65
5. Lisandro Benedetti-Cecchi (Italy) Plant Succession in Littoral
Universita di Pisa Habitats: Observations, Explanations,
and Empirical Evidence 97
6. Jacob John (Australia) Phycoremediation: Algae as Tools
Curtin University for Remediation of Mine-Void Wetlands 133
7. Donat-P. Hilder (Gennany) UV-B Impact on the Life of Aquatic
Erlangen Universitat Plants 149
8. H. E. Zagarese, Barbara Tartarotti (Austria) The Significance of Ultraviolet
and D. A. Aii6n Suarez (Argentina) Radiation for Aquatic Animals 173
9. Rajeshwar P. Sinha (Gennany) Stress Responses in Cyanobacteria 201
Erlangen Universitat
10. Nandor Oertel and Janos Salanki Biomonitoring and Bioindicators
(Hungary) in Aquatic Ecosystems 219
11. Arthur J. McComb and The Ecology of Wetlands Created
Jane M. Chambers (Australia) in Mining-Affected Landscapes 247
Murdoch University
12. R. S. Ambasht & Navin K. Ambasht (India) Conservation of Soil and Nutrients
Banaras Hindu University through Plant Cover on Wetland
Margins 269
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