Bloom forming and toxic phytoplankton in transitional and coastal waters of Cantabria region coast (Southeastern Bay of Biscay, Spain).

Phytoplankton monitoring has extended to practically all the regions of the European coast due to the implementation of the European Water Framework Directive. In this way, the study of phytoplankton taxonomic composition and dynamic is being performed in many areas poorly studied or not studied before. During the last years, a monitoring programme has been carried out at the coast of Cantabria region (SE Bay of Biscay); the presence of some potentially toxic and bloom forming species (>7.5 × 105 cells per litre) has been observed. Diatoms and cryptophytes are the main blooming taxa in this region in the majority of the estuaries and in some of the coastal sites. All estuaries and coastal stations showed at least one potentially toxic species, being the dinoflagellates the group with the highest number of taxa observed. The potentially toxic species found in highest concentrations were the genera Pseudo-nitzschia and Chrysochromulina.

Microdistribution patterns of macroinvertebrate communities upstream and downstream of organic effluents.

The present study analyses the distribution patterns of macroinvertebrate communities in four microhabitats (riffles, glides, leaf litter and bank roots) upstream and downstream of two waste water treatment plant (WWTP) effluents in northern Spain rivers. Macroinvertebrate communities were analysed in November 2006 by taking 5 samples from each of the microhabitats under unaffected (upstream WWTP) and affected (downstream WWTP) conditions, respectively. Water velocity, depth, substrate coarseness and hydraulic stress by means of the Froude number were also estimated at all sampling locations. Under unaffected conditions, the abundance and presence/absence of certain macroinvertebrate taxa were mainly determined by hydraulic characteristics (water velocity and Froude number) and feeding resource availability. However, neither macroinvertebrate richness nor abundance were neither significantly correlated with hydraulic stress nor substrate coarseness, although the number of macroinvertebrate taxa increased in microhabitats with high structural complexity. Macroinvertebrate abundance increased downstream of both WWTPs, while macroinvertebrate richness was not adversely affected by the organic enrichment of water. The structure and composition of macroinvertebrate communities occurring in riffles was similar under unaffected and affected conditions, while communities from leaf litter and submerged bank roots showed important changes above and below the WWTPs, indicating that they are probably the most appropriate communities for water quality assessment.