A. P. Modesto

and Moramarco

Ashkan Pilbala

Benistati N.

L. Piccolroaz

N. Fraccarollo

S. Manca

Termini D.

V. Riccardi

English

Archivio istituzionale della ricerca - Università di Palermo

EGU24-18207, updated on 08 Mar 2024EGU General Assembly 2024© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed underthe Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.Freshwater mussels’ valve movement response as early-warningsystem of river’s ecosystem conditionsDonatella Termini1,5, Nina Benistati1, Ashkan Pilbala Ashkan Pilbala2, Vanessa Modesto3, NicolettaRiccardi3, Luigi Fraccarollo2, Sebastiano Piccolroaz2, Dario Manca3, and Tommaso Moramarco41Department of Engineering, University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy2Department of Civil, Environmental and Mechanical Engineering, University of Trento, Trento, Italy3Water Research Institute IRSA, The National Research Council (CNR) , Verbania, Italy4Research Institute for Geo Hydrological Protection (IRPI), The National Research Council (CNR) , Perugia, Italy5NBFC, National Biodiversity Future Center, Palermo, ItalyGlobal warming has lead concerns about more frequent high intensity rainfall events andincreasing river floods. Changes in the river hydrodynamics affect the biological communitieswhich are controlled by the interplay between physical-chemical and hydraulic processes. Thus,there is increasing interest in identifying the impact of the hydrodynamic stresses, alsodetermined by climate change, on the aquatic environment and, consequently, on theinteractions between flow and organisms (Lopez and Vaughn, 2021). To this aim, it isfundamental to use remote sensors to constantly monitor the responses of animals toenvironmental changes. Among these sensors, bio-indicators have been increasingly used tomonitor water quality conditions. Some species, called as “ecosystem engineers”, are especiallyimportant in studying the effects of climate changes in rivers (Butler and Sawyer, 2012). Thepresent study considers freshwater mussels which meet the criteria to be considered as typical“ecosystem engineers” and can be considered as sensitive biosensors of environmentaldisturbance (among others Gerhardt et al. 2006). Monitoring freshwater mussels’ opening andclosing valves activities (i.e., valvometric technique) over time has been used to evaluate thebehavior of the bivalves in reaction to their environmental exposure. The application of thevalvometric technique is not recent and has been mainly applied to analyze the impact of chemicalstressors on freshwater mussels. Recent experimental results obtained by the research group ofthe present work (Modesto et al., 2023; Termini et al., 2023), in sand-bed laboratory flumes withdifferent FMs’ populations, have suggested that the mussels’ behavioural response could be alsoused as a tool for an early warning system of flow variations in rivers, also in the presence ofsediment transport. The present work reports the results both of an experimental investigationconducted in a laboratory flume to analyze the influence of the substrate composition on thefreshwater mussels’ response and of an in-situ test conducted in a selected reach of the Pagliariver (Italy) to verify the FMs’ response in non-controlled environment. In both cases the FMs’valvometry data were collected in real-time by using Hall sensors technology. The FMs’ behaviouralresponse was examined in terms of valves’ opening/closure frequency and amplitude. Theobtained results have confirmed that FMs’ behavioural response can be used as BEWS foridentifying the impacts of hydrodynamic changes in rivers.ReferencesButler DR, Sawyer CF, 2012. Introduction to the special issue: zoogeomorphology and ecosystemengineering. Geomorphology 157–158.Gerhardt A, Ingram MK, Kang IJ, Ulitzur S 2006. In situ on-line toxicity biomonitoring in water:recent developments. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry 25: 2263–2271.Lopez J. W., Vaughn C.C., 2021. A review and evaluation of the effects of hydrodynamic variableson freshwater mussel communities. Freshwater Biology 66 (9): 1665-1679.Modesto, V. et al. 2023. Mussel behaviour as a tool to measure the impact of hydrodynamicstressors, Hydrobiologia, 850, 807–820.Termini, D. et al. 2023. Identification of hydrodynamic changes in rivers by means of freshwatermussels’ behavioural response: an experimental investigation, Ecohydrology, e2544.Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

Freshwater mussels’ valve movement response as early-warning system of river’s ecosystem conditions

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Freshwater mussels’ valve movement response as early-warning system of river’s ecosystem conditions

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