Thermal regime of a highly regulated Italian river (Ticino River) and implications for aquatic communities

Thermal alteration is one of the adverse effects of flow regulation sharpened in recent years due to climate changes. In this work, we characterize the thermal regime of a highly regulated river located in Northern Italy, which is the emissary of Lake Maggiore. The thermal characteristics of the study reach are influenced by the presence of two dams and by climate warming. In the 15-year monitored period (1999-2013) a significant increase of the mean annual river temperature (i.e., +1.8°C) was indeed recorded. Minimum and maximum water temperatures were detected in correspondence of low-flow periods in February and August, respectively. During August the temperature reached a maximum of 27°C, that is a value below the upper thermal limit of tolerance for most of the aquatic taxa collected in the study area. Moreover, the local presence of seeps and the interaction with groundwater play an important ecological role by guaranteeing patches of cool water to the aquatic communities. Nevertheless, the sensitive early life stages of fish species that spawn in spring/summer may be affected by the high summer temperatures and the expected future climate warming. The wider range of temperatures preferred by alien fish species could result into a competitive disadvantage for autochthonous species. The current minimum flows established by local laws as environmental flows appeared to be able to guarantee an acceptable thermal alteration in morphologically heterogeneous reaches where river/groundwater interaction occurred, at least within the current climatic conditions.</p

Beta-diversity and stressor specific index reveal patterns of macroinvertebrate community response to sediment flushing

Abstract Anthropogenic increase of fine sediment loading is one of the main pressures for rivers worldwide. Particularly, Alpine streams are increasingly facing this issue due to sediment flushing operations from hydropower reservoirs, aimed at recovering storage for preserving electricity generation. Although Controlled Sediment Flushing Operations (CSFOs) are becoming increasingly frequent, ecological indicators to adequately assess and monitor their impact on the stream ecosystem have been poorly developed. In this work, we aimed to perform a screening of currently available biomonitoring tools to evaluate the CSFO effects on the riverine biota and adequately assess its recovery, starting from the recognition of the main ecological mechanisms triggered by the mentioned activities on benthic macroinvertebrate communities. We used two independent datasets concerning two reservoirs in the central Italian Alps to investigate the temporal effects of CSFOs repeated for four consecutive years (case-study I), and the impact of a single CSFO at a seasonal scale through a before/after-control/impact approach (case-study II). Initially, we quantified the CSFO impact on the richness and beta-diversity of macroinvertebrate communities by combining multivariate and univariate statistical techniques. Then, we compared the performance of the Siltation Index for LoTic EcoSystems (SILTES), recently developed for detecting siltation impact in Alpine streams, with that of the generic index currently adopted to assess the ecological status (sensu Water Framework Directive) of the Italian rivers, and of another sediment-specific index, but developed for a different bio-geographical area. The analysis of the two case-studies demonstrated that the nestedness (i.e. taxa loss) is the primary source of biological impairment caused by CSFOs. Moreover, we found that SILTES was more effective than the other indices because of its strong correlation with the nestedness, and since it properly discriminated impaired and pristine conditions, at both multi-annual and seasonal scale. In the first case-study, a threshold in the temporal trend of this index was detected, indicating a recovery within three months. In the second one, SILTES showed a recovery to pre-event seasonal values after nine months from the CSFO, due to larger and more persistent sediment deposition. This study demonstrates that SILTES could be adopted as a benchmark to improve the management of CSFOs from an ecological viewpoint. Our findings can be extended to the management of other sediment-related activities affecting mountainous streams worldwide, and, more generally, the adopted approach can be replicated for developing new ecological tools to manage other disturbances to river environments

Monitoring and Management of Inland Waters: Insights from the Most Inhabited Italian Region

Monitoring of freshwaters allows the detection of the impacts of multiple anthropic uses and activities on aquatic ecosystems, and an eco-sustainable management of natural resources could limit these impacts. In this work, we highlighted two main issues affecting inland waters, referring to findings from the most inhabited Italian region (Lombardy, approximately 10 M inhabitants): the first issue is lake pollution by old generation pesticides, the second is river development for hydropower. In both cases, some management strategies reducing the anthropic impacts on freshwaters were discussed: organic farming and biocontrol as an alternative to diffuse pollution by agrochemicals; environmental flows and controlled sediment flushing operations to limit the hydropower impact on rivers. Although the two mentioned issues were discussed separately in this paper, the management of water resources should be carried out in a comprehensive way, accounting for the multiple impacts affecting freshwater ecosystems, including those related to the climate changes

Towards ecological flows: status of the benthic macroinvertebrate community during summer low-flow periods in a regulated lowland river

Climate change along with the increasing exploitation of water resources exacerbates low-flow periods, causing detrimental effects on riverine communities. The main mitigation measure currently adopted to counteract hydrological alterations induced by off-stream diversion is the release of minimum flows (MFs), even if within the European Union Water Framework Directive an upgrade towards ecological flows is urgently required to achieve good ecological status (GES). In this study, we investigated the temporal evolution of the benthic macroinvertebrate community in an Italian-regulated lowland river (Ticino River) to clarify the ecological effects of summer low flows, and we evaluated the current MFs in the perspective of meeting GES standard. Biomonitoring was carried out for four consecutive years (2019-2022), in a river site immediately below a large off-stream diversion. The four study years were characterized by different streamflow patterns, thus allowing us to compare the temporal trajectories of the community under different flow conditions. Moreover, the interruption of the low-flow periods due to overflow spilled by the upstream dam gave us the opportunity to assess the effects of experimental flow peaks. Contrary to the expectation, the macroinvertebrate assemblage kept almost unvaried across the years, showing great resistance and resilience to hydrological changes. Even in extraordinarily dry 2022, the community composition varied only slightly, with a reduction of mayflies and an increase of mollusks. However, a deterioration of the ecological status below GES standard was recorded that summer, indicating the need for an upgrading of the current MFs. This upgrade would include experimental flow peaks in critical periods, which act as intermediate disturbances, enhancing community richness, diversity, and overall quality, as well as compliance with a threshold of an index specifically developed for the hydrological pressure

Interprofesionalidad y salud en el primer nivel de atención La experiencia en Barrio Penino, San José 2020

Este trabajo sistematiza y reflexiona acerca de la experiencia integral desarrollada en el primer nivel de atención en salud en el Barrio Penino, San José. Específicamente se expone la realizada en el año 2020 por un colectivo docente de seis servicios universitarios de la Universidad de la República, en la cual se formaron estudiantes de grado de esos centros, a través de varios proyectos que incluyeron la formación interprofesional como su eje central. En la práctica se actualizó la aproximación diagnóstica en salud realizada en 2019 prepandemia, destacando cambios y concordancias, y se realizaron una serie de actividades de promoción y educación para la salud bajo el lema #ConvivenciaSinViolencia. De ellas se destacan la implementación de la segunda edición de la Feria de la Salud, el diseño y realización de un mural y de una fotogalería, realizados en forma presencial en el segundo semestre de 2020. Durante la experiencia se priorizó la reflexión conjunta sobre temas relevantes, como la naturaleza del Sistema Nacional Integrado de Salud y sus fundamentos, la participación comunitaria en salud, la interdisciplina y la necesaria formación conjunta, tomando en cuenta las restricciones establecidas a partir de la emergencia sanitaria Los proyectos de intervención fueron diseñados e implementados por docentes y estudiantes

Response of stream benthic macroinvertebrates to current water management in Alpine catchments massively developed for hydropower

The present work focuses on evaluating the ecological effects of hydropower-induced streamflow alteration within four catchments in the central Italian Alps. Downstream from the water diversions, minimum flows are released as an environmental protection measure, ranging approximately from 5 to 10% of the mean annual natural flow estimated at the intake section. Benthic macroinvertebrates as well as daily averaged streamflow were monitored for five years at twenty regulated stream reaches, and possible relationships between benthos-based stream quality metrics and environmental variables were investigated. Despite the non-negligible inter-site differences in basic streamflow metrics, benthic macroinvertebrate communities were generally dominated by few highly resilient taxa. The highest level of diversity was detected at sites where upstream minimum flow exceedance is higher and further anthropogenic pressures (other than hydropower) are lower. However, according to the current Italian normative index, the ecological quality was good/high on average at all of the investigated reaches, thus complying the Water Framework Directive standards

Considering mesohabitat scale in ecological impact assessment of sediment flushing

Benthic macroinvertebrates respond to several factors characterizing the physical habitats, as water depth, current and streambed substrate. Thus, anthropogenic disturbances altering these factors may have different effects on benthos, also depending on mesohabitats. These disturbances include sediment flushing operations, commonly carried out to recover reservoir capacity, and investigating their effects at mesohabitat scale could be relevant for an adequate ecological impact assessment of these operations. Here, we compared benthic macroinvertebrate communities sampled before and after a controlled sediment flushing operation in three different mesohabitats (a pool, a riffle and a step-pool) of an Alpine stream. Contrary from expectations, the composition of macroinvertebrate assemblages was not significantly different among mesohabitats. Moreover, the impact of sediment flushing was more significant in terms of density rather than in richness. Two stressor-specific indices were tested, but only one (the Siltation Index for LoTic EcoSystems − SILTES) clearly detected the impact of sediment flushing on the macroinvertebrate community structure. Finally, some differences in the temporal trajectories and recovery times to pre-flushing conditions were observed among mesohabitats, both if the three mesohabitats were considered separately and if all their possible combinations were accounted for. Particularly, riffle was the most sensitive mesohabitat, not fully recovering one year after the sediment disturbance

Eco-hydraulic survey of streams and rivers highly exploited for hydropower in the Central Italian Alps

The assessment of appropriate environmental flows (e-flows) to mitigate the impact of hydropower diversion on the aquatic environment is still controversial. One of the main obstacles to defining the e-flows is represented by the difficulty in establishing clear and measurable environmental objectives of the water releases below diversion works. To contribute to this discussion, we provide a summary of our four years (2009-2012) eco-hydraulic field investigation on thirteen watercourses in the Central Italian Alps, where water exploitation mainly focuses on hydropower