| Abstrakt: |
The aquatic environment has various living resources, making it unique among other environments and economically significant. The lack of guidance, environmental awareness, and health control has decreased water quality, impacting living organisms and humans along the food chain. This is due to the increasing number of pollutants, including physical, chemical, radioactive, and infectious microscopic biological substances, that infiltrate water resources, raising concerns about the aquatic environment. Traditional chemical and physical assays for pollution detection have some limitations, such as providing information only during sampling and requiring expensive analysis for sensitive detection of contaminants when present in very low concentrations. In contrast, biological communities (bioindicators) offer reliable and cost-effective tools for assessing toxic pollutants. Various bioindicators, such as plants, plankton, animals, and microorganisms, are considered vital indicators for detecting water pollution compared to their benefits and drawbacks. Using indicator species as ecological indicators is a reliable and cost-effective way to assess environmental changes and reflect the overall water quality by integrating the effects of various stressors over time. Therefore, bioindicators are considered a valuable model for predicting the presence and extent of pollution (acting as an early warning system) before the onset of pollutant effects and characterizing ecosystem health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
