Limnetica 39

Freshwater is a fundamental component in the health and well-being of humans and ecosystems, and for socio-economic development. Therefore, it has become essential to manage it in a balanced way due to its importance. To provide some insights into this topic, we evaluated the ecological status and water quality of a Mediterranean river through the analysis of both benthic diatoms and invertebrates’ communities, as well as physicochemical and hydromorphological parameters. The assessment of the physicochemical water quality indicated the presence of organic pollution, especially during spring and summer. The evaluation of the physical habitat revealed slight transformations in the river’s channel and an impacted riparian zone unable to function as a barrier to the anthropogenic impacts. Moreover, both diatoms and benthic invertebrates’ communities showed that the river still has some sampling sites classified below the “Good” ecological status as proposed by the Water Framework Directive, with populations dominated mostly by ubiquitous and tolerant taxa to organic pollution. The results obtained here could contribute to create future research projects in order to provide integrated management solutions to improve the river’s ecological status.