Effective water quality management through the use of algal indices as water quality indicator Speaker/Author – Lucia Marais Co-Author – Prof. Sandra Barnard

CONTENTS INTRODUCTION OBJECTIVE STUDY SITE METHODOLOGY RESULTS & DISCUSSION CONCLUSION

INTRODUCTION “The wars of the twenty-first century will be fought over water” ~ Ismail Serageldin (1995) Water Quality Management of water resources Qualitative & quantitative information needed

BIO-INDICATORS INTRODUCTION Species provide info on physical or chemical characteristics ADVANTAGEOUS Reflects the overall water quality Integrating effects of different stress factors Detects long term environmental effects Physical-chemical – a snapshot

BIO-INDICATORS INTRODUCTION Phytoplankton Rapid Reliable Relatively inexpensive to record environmental conditions

OBJECTIVES To determine the Mooi River water quality by means of: Phytoplankton assemblage Algal indices

STUDY SITE Fig. 1: Map indicating the location of the Mooi River from source to confluence with the Vaal River (Barnard et al, 2013).

STUDY SITE Fig 2: Map illustrating the sampling points along the Mooi River gradient Site 1: BVO, Site 2: KKD, Site 3: BWFS, Site 4: AWFS, Site 5: BKD, Site 6: PD, Site 7: WWTP, Site 8: EBR

PHYTOPLANKTON ANALYSIS METHODOLOGY PHYTOPLANKTON ANALYSIS Preparation & Enumeration: Sedimentation technique The Inverted Microscope

1.PALMER INDEX – organic pollution METHODOLOGY 1.PALMER INDEX – organic pollution Table 1: Palmer’s Algal Genus Pollution Index score Table 2: The Palmer Index score interpretation (adapted from Aslam, 2009). Palmer index score Pollution level 0-10: Lack of organic pollution 10-15: Moderate pollution 15-20: Probable high organic pollution 20 or more: Confirms high organic pollution

METHODOLOGY 2. SHANNON WIENER INDEX – Inorganic pollution Pi = S/N S = Number of individuals of one genus N = Total number of all individuals in the sample ln = Natural logarithm Table 2: The Shannon-Wiener Diversity index score interpretation SPECIES DIVERSITY POLLUTION LEVEL 3.0 - 4.5 Slight pollution 2.0 - 3.0 Light pollution 1.0 - 2.0 Moderate pollution 0.0 - 1.0 Heavy pollution

3. MARGALEF SPECIES RICHNESS INDEX METHODOLOGY 3. MARGALEF SPECIES RICHNESS INDEX S = Total number of genera N = Total number of individuals in the sample ln = Natural logarithm

4. PIELOU SPECIES EVENNESS INDEX METHODOLOGY 4. PIELOU SPECIES EVENNESS INDEX H = Shannon-Wiener Index S = Total number of genera in the sample ln = Natural logarithm

METHODOLOGY Table 3: Physical-Chemical & Biological Analysis ANALYSIS INSTRUMENT/METHOD Nitrate and Nitrite (NO3 & NO2) Gallery Plus Automated Chemistry Analyser/ Colorimetric Orthophosphate(PO4-P) Continues Flow Analyzer/ Colorimetric E.coli Colilert-18H

PHYTOPLANKTON ABUNDANCE RESULTS & DISCUSSION PHYTOPLANKTON ABUNDANCE MESOTROPHIC TO EUTROPHIC STATE Fig 3: Relative abundance of the phytoplankton classes present for the study period in the Mooi River. Cyan: Cyanophyceae, Bacill: Bacillariophyceae, Chloro: Chlorophyceae, Crypto: Cryptophyceae, Chryso: Chrysophyceae, Dino: Dinophyceae

RESULTS & DISCUSSION Table 4:The scores of the four biotic indices calculated for the sites for the study period SITE Palmer algal index score Shannon Wiener index score Margalef Species Richness index score Pielou Species Evenness index score Site 2 KKD 29 1.89 5,17 0,47 Site 3 BWFS 37 3.18 7,91 0,77 Site 4 AWFS 28 3.2 8,42 0,83 Site 5 BKD 1.58 3,95 0,41 Site 6 PD 38 2.91 6,26 0,70 Site 7 WWTP 2.79 5,74 Site 8 EBR 30 2.11 6,78 0,54

MARGALEF & PIELOU RESULTS & DISCUSSION Fig 4: Graphs depicting the species richness (A) and species evenness (B) of the sites along the Mooi River. Site 2: KKD, Site 3: BWFS, Site 4: AWFS, Site 5: BKD, Site 6: PD, Site 7: WWTP, Site 8: EBR

RESULTS & DISCUSSION Table 5: Genera present at each site used for the Palmer Index calculation.

MESOTROPHIC TO EUTROPHIC STATE RESULTS & DISCUSSION Table 5: Summary of the descriptive statistics for the physico-chemical and biological variables determined Variable Descriptive River Site 1 BVO Site 2 KKD Site 3 BWFS Site 4 AWFS Site 5 BKD Site 6 PD Site 7 WWTP Site 8 EBR Nitrate and Mean 0.877 1.528 0.25 1.137 0.367 0.36 1.684 1.47 Nitrite Minimum 0.8 0.78 mg/L Maximum 4.3 2.9 1.3 1.9 3.9 Ortho - phosphate 0.163 0.028 0.035 0.049 0.113 0.567 0.464 Mg/L 0.025   2.0 0.07 0.32 1.1 E.coli 828 65 81 497 1124 145 209 11 4425  cfu/100ml 3 31 36 219 420 89 121 1414 4840 111 114 722 235 308 26 MESOTROPHIC TO EUTROPHIC STATE CONFIRMED

CONCLUSION Considering phytoplankton index analysis – high levels of organic pollution High feacal load River is in a meso- to eutrophic state THUS …

CONCLUSION Algal indices can successfully be used as water quality indicators  Reliable results Relatively inexpensive – Microscopic method Knowledge transfer and enrichment

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS NWU – Potchefstroom Midvaal Water Company