ASSESSMENT OF ECOLOGICAL STATUS OF VJOSA RIVER IN ALBANIAN, BASED ON CHEMICAL INDICATORS AND BIOMONITORING

Abstract: Water ecosystems are the main assets of our country, especially Vjosa River as the last wild river in Europe. Vjosa is a National park and is considerate as the Blue heart of Europe. Thus continuous assessments are necessary for preserving of water quality and conserving biodiversity of water ecosystem. Nowadays, the studies of water ecosystems are focused in chemical monitoring and biomonitoring too. Traditional measures of water quality are based on physic-chemical parameters but using biomonitoring especially diatoms algae we can evaluate historical pollution of water ecosystems. Our study was focused in the assessment of water quality and ecological status of Vjosa River, based on chemical and biological parameters. During 2021-2022 in five sampling point were collected water samples and biological samples. Water samples were analyzed for NH4+, NO2-, NO3- and PO43- as chemical parameters. Biological samples were analyzed for microalgae as diatoms. The values of ammonium ranged from 0.035 to 0.09mg/l. NO2 from 0.008 to 0.083mg/l and NO3 varied from 0.125mg/l to 0.32mg/l. The values of phosphates ranged from 0.01 to 0.08mg/l. Vjosa River resulted to be in a high and good quality, compared with WFD. Based on diatoms, 96 species were found in 5 sampling points and their ecological values show a trophic status that range from oligotroph up to meso-eutroph. Also a PCA analysis in SPSS 20 program was used to see the correlation that existed between chemical and biological parameters.