IGA LEWIN¹ (author of photographs)
KRZYSZTOF SZOSZKIEWICZ² (project manager)

¹ University of Silesia,
Faculty of Biology and Environmental Protection, Department of Hydrobiology;
Bankowa 9, 40-007 Katowice
e-mail: iga.lewin@us.edu.pl

² University of Life Science,
Faculty of Land Reclamation and Environmental Engineering,
Department of Ecology and Agricultural Environment Protection
Piątkowska 94c, 61-691 Poznań

Description popularizing the research project

The prototype meter kept in Sevres is a guarantee of the utmost accurate measurements. Precisely defined size of the platinum-iridium bar symbolizes certainty and invariability. Such standards are necessary, although they are hard to use in everyday life. Just like an ideal man, ideal beauty or genius they are simply unreachable. They are useful as a reference point in our considerations. We need the ideals to compare with. Classifying features of objects and phenomena we refer them to the ideal and, voila, we know whether our subject is big or small, polluted or clean, correct or pathological, nice or ugly.
Indeed we should have prototypes of everything. Yet in biological studies it seems almost impossible, as every living creature is an individual. Nevertheless all possible classifications are based upon “standards", so called reference material. What can we compare more complex structures to? Is there, for example, a standard for a river? Would it be a strictly theoretical model of flowing water? Would it be an ideal river designed and approved by some Supreme Commission? Or maybe it would be an average of many rivers?
Research conducted by international teams will soon answer the questions. Streams and rivers of Beskid ływiecki have been included in a research project that is to check which features could be used as reference. Smaller and bigger invertebrates, and river bank thickets will soon fill in databases across Europe. Cane, calamus and marsh marigold and even aquatic bryophytes will describe the type of water and the character of a river. They will provide us with much more valuable information than chemical analyses of water and sediments. The rivers of Beskid with their unregulated riverbanks, flowing in their natural river beds, not polluted with fertilizers and pesticides are unique in Europe. Yet under a watchful eye of hydrobiologists and botanists they will become a reference point for other European mountain rivers. The swift currents stony riverbeds, rocks washed by the current where children play and wagtails sit, will become a mirror which other rocks and plants will look into. They will not be locked in a capsule like in Sevres near Paris. They are far from the invariability of the metal bar, yet still they may be the basis for classification of other rivers. The Beskid reference swift currents and ideal deep waters will make the rivers famous. Wzorzec metra, przechowywany z największą pieczo

Abstract

In Poland, according to the Water Framework Directive (WFD), present legislation of the water protection utilizes biological indices mainly, among them the macrophyte indices. The water classification depends on the evaluation of the biological index values deviation from reference conditions. The macrophyte indices under reference conditions of the mountain and highland river types in Poland are not yet prepared, so the classification of water quality according to the WFD which based on the macrophytes have not been realized to date.
The objective of the present survey were to carry out a characteristic of the macrophytes in the reference conditions of the mountain and highland river types in Poland. The sample sites are chosen according to the Polish and European directives in relation to the reference conditions. The experts from Great Britain will take part in choosing the sample sites. The project will be realized for 36 months (from September 2007 to August 2010) and encompass the biological assessment, the River Habitat Survey, the physical and chemical analysis of water and bottom sediments. The macrophyte survey will be carried out according to the bioindicative methods of water evaluation. The biotic indices will calculated on the basis of number of the macroinvertebrate taxa and their density. The samples have been collected in the streams and rivers of the Beskid Żywiecki (the Przybędza Stream, the Soła River, the Cięcina Stream, the Żabnica Stream, the Czerna Stream, the Rycerka Stream and the Sopotnia Mała Stream).
The calculated values of the bioindicative indices, the values of the physical and chemical parameters of water and the hydromorphological data will be statistically analyzed (STATISTICA, CANOCO and CAP - Community Analysis Package). The result on the macrophyte occurrence in the reference conditions in rivers in Poland thanks to the international cooperation will obtain confirmation which will refer to the survey realized for different types of rivers in Europe.