SECTION 14 



EXPERIMENIAL APPLICATION OF VARIOUS SYSTEMS OF BIOLOGICAL 

 INDICATION OF WATER POLLUTION 



G.G. Winberg 



In the Soviet Union, there is no generally accepted system of evalua- 

 tion of water pollution by hydrobiological indices. As in a number of the 

 European countries, the most widely utilized was the saprobian system of 

 Kolkwitz and Marson particularly modified by Zelinka and Marvan, Pantle 

 and Buck, and Sladecek. At present, work has been started on the relative 

 evaluation of various methods of biological analyses of water pollution. 

 It should be noted that hydrobiological analysis may be used for two es- 

 sentially different purposes: 1) to obtain a relative evaluation of the 

 water quality at as given time, and 2) to obtain data objectively charac- 

 terizing the condition of aquatic ecosystem, intended to be used subse- 

 quently for the study of long-term alterations. 



Comparative evaluation of various systems of hydrobiological analysis 

 of polluted waters has been made by the staff of the Laboratory of Fresh- 

 water and Experimental Hydrobiology of the Zoological Institute of the 

 USSR Academy of Sciences. For this purpose during 1973-1975, hydrobiolo- 

 gical samples were collected at 26 stations representing various degrees 

 of pollution on several rivers of the Leningradskaya region, including 

 the rivers: Izhora, Luga, Vuoksa. In the Kaliningradskaya region the 

 tributaries of the system of the Pregol were included as was Moskva River. 

 On all the rivers, the samples were collected in July and August of 1973- 

 75 with the exception of the Izhora River, which was considered as a model 

 and where the samples were taken on eight occasions representing all the 

 seasons of the year. Detailed investigations were made of the phytoplank- 

 ton and periphyton (V.N. Nikulina), planktonic ciliates (T.V. 

 Khlebovitsch), zooplankton (M.B. Ivanova, L.A. Kutikova, A.V. Makrushin) 

 and zoobenthos (A.F. Alimov, N.P. Finogenova, E.V. Balushkina, S.Ya. 

 Tsekholikhin) . The degree of pollution on each of the stations was 

 characterized by hydrochemical (N.G. Ozeretskovskaya, V.V. Bulion) and 

 bacteriological (M.F. Fursenko) data. Total counts of bacteria were made, 

 the number of heterotrophic bacteria (plate counts on MPA) and the 

 associated heterotrophic activity were determined by the method of Right 

 and Hobbie. Of the 6 classes of polluted waters, only the classes 1 1 -V 

 were represented, i.e., very clean (class I) and very dirty (class VI) 

 water were not found. 



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