Abstract
The use of diatoms to monitor rivers in the UK was stimulated largely bythe requirements of the European Union's “Urban Wastewater TreatmentDirective”. The Trophic Diatom Index (TDI) was developed to assist theinterpretation of benthic diatom assemblages from UK rivers. This paperdescribes how data collected from one river, the River Wear in N-E England,sampled over a five-year period, was used to provide information about thepotential benefits of nutrient removal on major sewage treatment works.Althoughthe TDI indicated a clear increase in eutrophication with distance downstream,interpretation was confused by considerable within-site variability.Multivariate techniques such as TWINSPAN, when used alongside diatom indices,provide a more rigorous interpretation of longitudinal changes. The potentialfor using statistical power analysis to design sensitive monitoring programsusing benthic diatoms is also described.
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Kelly, M. Role of benthic diatoms in the implementation of the Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive in the River Wear, North-East England. Journal of Applied Phycology 14, 9–18 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1015236404305
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1015236404305