ORIGINAL RESEARCH
The Effects of Bridge Abutments on the Benthic
Macroinvertebrate Community
Zhengda Yu1, Hui Wang1, Renqing Wang1,2,3, Tongli He2, Qingqing Cao1,
Yutao Wang2, Jian Liu1
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1Institute of Environmental Research, Shandong University, Jinan 250100, China
2School of Life Sciences, Shandong University, Jinan 250100, China
3Shandong Provincial Engineering and Technology Research Center for Vegetation Ecology, Shandong University,
Jinan 250100, China
Submission date: 2015-12-28
Final revision date: 2016-02-20
Acceptance date: 2016-02-20
Publication date: 2016-05-25
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2016;25(3):1331-1337
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ABSTRACT
A river ecosystem is a treasure that is home to a wide variety of wetland species. The construction of
bridges might have a deep impact on diversity of such an ecosystem. The ecological consequence of bridge
abutments was studied by monitoring the benthic macroinvertebrate community at six main bridges on
the Tuhai and Majia rivers in eastern China. We collected samples of macroinvertebrates from upstream
to downstream during the summer hight-water period, and we monitored water quality at each site. The
macroinvertebrate community of under-bridge sites was significantly correlated with that of reference sites
in abundance, biomass, and richness. The benthic macroinvertebrate communities were not significantly
different between under-bridge sites and reference sites in terms of abundance and biomass, while they were
significantly different in terms of richness and the Shannon-Wiener index. This pattern outlined a major
impact of bridge abutments on benthic macroinvertebrate communities for the first time, indicating the
importance of habitat restoration after river construction was finished. Suitable measures should be taken to
minimize the impact of bridge abutments.