Water Air Soil Pollut (2021) 232: 55 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-021-05005-6 Triggers for the Impoverishment of the Macroinvertebrate Communities in the Human-Impacted Rivers of Two Central European Ecoregions Dariusz Halabowski & Iga Lewin Received: 15 October 2020 /Accepted: 21 January 2021 /Published online: 4 February 2021 # The Author(s) 2021 Abstract Human activity triggers negative alternations saline rivers may prove to be prescient for climate- in river habitats, including changes to the physical and induced changes to river macroinvertebrates. chemical parameters of the water, its hydromorphological features and the introduction and spread of invasive alien Keywords Anthropogenicsalinisation .Humanimpact . species. These modifications are expected to be intensi- Hydromorphological Index for Rivers . Invasive alien fied by climate change. Eight rivers in one of the most species . Pollution . Running waters urbanised and industrialised regions in Europe, i.e. the Upper Silesian Coal Basin, were surveyed in order to explain the impact of anthropopressure on the distribu- 1Introduction tion of macroinvertebrates. Conductivity, altitude, hydromorphological transformations, hardness, the or- Global biodiversity is now at the beginning of the sixth ganic matter content and certain fractions of benthic mass extinction of species. Projections indicate that sediments significantly affect (p < 0.01) the occurrence approximately 75% of species may be lost due to this of macroinvertebrates in Central European rivers. Our human-induced, global ecological crisis (Ceballos et al. results proved that the hydromorphological transforma- 2015; Payne et al. 2016;Briggs2017). Ten key factors, tion of watercourses, which is expressed by the relevant the so-called big killers (Maxwell et al. 2016), have been indices, is one of the most predictive factors that contrib- implicated in the accelerating the loss of biodiversity ute to the distribution of macroinvertebrates. worldwide: overexploitation, agricultural activity, urban Anthropogenic inland waters that have been salinised development, invasion and disease, pollution, system by the discharge of hard coal mine waters create new modification, climate change, human disturbance, trans- habitats for brackish and marine species that replace portation and energy production. Almost all of these native freshwater species. An increase in salinity causes “big killers” impact species dependent on freshwater an impoverishment of macroinvertebrate biodiversity environments—environments themselves that are the therefore all possible actions should be taken to reduce most threatened ecosystems on earth (Nieto et al. 2017). the anthropogenic salinity of inland waters. Secondary In freshwater environments, nearly 10% of all known species are present (Winemiller 2018). This includes approximately one-third of known vertebrates and more : than 2% (> 150 000 species) of global invertebrate D. Halabowski (*) I. Lewin biodiversity (Strayer 2006; Dudgeon et al. 2007). Institute of Biology, Biotechnology and Environmental Protection, Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Silesia in Changes in the physical and chemical characters of Katowice, Bankowa 9, 40-007 Katowice, Poland water along with the hydromorphological (e.g. river- e-mail: [email protected] beds, water regime, connection with floodplain) 55 Page 2 of 22 Water Air Soil Pollut (2021) 232: 55 degradation of rivers are direct threats to freshwater considered major threats to the most endangered fresh- invertebrate diversity worldwide. In addition, anthropo- water macroinvertebrates such as mussels (Geist and genically derived point and diffuse pollution sources Auerswald 2007; Lopes-Lima et al. 2017). impact the diversity and abundance of macroinverte- Anthropogenic (secondary) salinisation is responsible brates. Anthropogenic salinisation is increasingly for the degradation of water quality on a worldwide recognised as contributing to the degradation of water scale and results in biological changes in ecosystems, quality worldwide and represents a growing eco- mainly in freshwater biota (Bäthe and Coring 2011; logical threat to rivers and streams (Cañedo- Kang and King 2012; Arle and Wagner 2013;Bąk Argüelles et al. 2013). et al. 2020; Sowa et al. 2020). In addition, dioxins, Hydromorphological transformations of most pharmaceutical compounds and other chemicals can streams and rivers in Europe constitute one of the major have chronic and acute effects on aquatic macroinverte- threats to the habitats of mussels (Geist 2014). The brates (Lopes-Lima et al. 2017). removal of weeds and dredging of riverbeds, and above Climate change impacts abiotic factors including all channelisation and dams, alter the characteristics of temperature and precipitation, which in turn, affect the aquatic ecosystems, disrupt the natural meta-population functioning of aquatic ecosystems including the rate of structure and contribute to local macroinvertebrate ex- reproduction and feeding of freshwater organisms tirpations (Aldridge 2000; Cosgrove and Hastie 2001; (Vörösmarty et al. 2000; Schmeller et al. 2018). Geist and Kuehn 2005). Both climate change and the anthropogenic degra- Freshwater environments have long been experienc- dation of water ecosystems contribute to the re- ing the dangers of human activity, but in recent years, duction in the quality and quantity of freshwater this process has been intensifying as urbanisation prog- resources. Together with the increase in human ress and the human population increases (Amoatey and population, they intensify the large-scale phenom- Baawain 2019; Kumaraswamy et al. 2020). In recent enon of the impoverishment of biodiversity of years, anthropogenic salinisation has been considered freshwater environments (Vörösmarty et al. 2000; one of the key factors contributing to the decrease of Malmqvist and Rundle 2002; Dudgeon et al. water quality worldwide (Cañedo-Argüelles et al. 2007). What is more, because of the interaction 2013). Nowadays, the major contributors to freshwater between global climate change and the anthropo- pollution include wastewater and industrial effluents, genic alterations of the hydrologic cycle, second- metals and metalloids, flame retardants, polycyclic aro- ary salinisation may become more intense in the matic hydrocarbons, nutrients and persistent organic coming decades (Neubauer and Craft 2009). pollutants, herbicides, pesticides, pharmaceuticals and Anthropogenic salinisation can degrade wetlands, illicit drugs and endocrine disruptors. In addition, new affect a variety of the processes and dynamics of water emerging pollutant sources in freshwater such as environments and the ecosystem services that are pro- microplastics and engineered nanoparticles are being vided by freshwater (Herbert et al. 2015). discovered (Amoatey and Baawain 2019). These chang- However, the scientific understanding of the mecha- es in pollution affect the ecosystem functions of clean nisms by which increasing salinity destroys freshwater water for humanity and also affect aquatic biota (includ- ecosystems is poor, which makes protecting freshwater ing macroinvertebrates) and may affect their ecological habitats difficult (Cañedo-Argüelles et al. 2016). services (Cañedo-Argüelles et al. 2016; Lopes-Lima Referring to the above arguments, research on the fac- et al. 2017; Schmeller et al. 2018; Amoatey and tors that impact the changes in freshwater biodiversity in Baawain 2019;Bergeretal.2019; Kumaraswamy the age of climate change and environmental emergency et al. 2020). For example, heavy metals and the organ- have substantial value in the policy and decision- ochlorine insecticide DDT can affect the calcification making processes of administrations and other and formation of mussel shells (Pynnönen 1995; Lopes- stakeholders about the risk of climate change and Lima et al. 2017). Phosphorous and nitrogen concentra- the potential impact on human well-being (Lioy tions are higher and are increasing in most European and Smith 2013). wetlands (Galloway et al. 2008; Douda 2010;Grizzetti Europe is divided into 25 ecoregions on the basis of et al. 2011). The deposition of fine-sediments and the thefaunalivinginEuropeaninlandwaters. introduction of nutrients from agricultural run-off are The European Union Water Framework Directive (EU Water Air Soil Pollut (2021) 232: 55 Page 3 of 22 55 WFD) (Directive 2000) uses abiotic variables to classify 2016). About 65 underground coal mines have been streams and rivers into types. For rivers, the Directive discharging the saline mine waters of Carboniferous fixed the typology, i.e. “System A” typology is defined rocks that have high concentrations of salts (mainly by the ecoregions and size based on the catchment area, chlorides and sulphates) via the coal mine dewatering catchment geology and altitude. Therefore, based on the systems into the tributaries of the Vistula and Oder “System A” typology, the homogenous water bodies for rivers, which caused their deterioration by the last de- the sampling sites were selected in accordance with the cades of the twentieth century. Nowadays, about 35 above requirements of the Directive including the hard coal mines are still active in the USCB. However, ecoregions (Directive 2000). even after hard coal mines are closed, the saline mine The objectives of our survey were to analyse the waters are still discharged into the surface waters includ- structure of the macroinvertebrate communities in rivers ing rivers in order