Aquatic Macrophyte Indices for Running Waters: Basic Components, Assessment and Evaluation

Aquatic plants called macrophytes, one of the most important components of aquatic ecosystems, are used in many sectors such as agricultural fertilizer, animal feed, cosmetics industry, pharmaceutical raw material in pharmacology, furniture decoration and human food. In addition to these uses, macrophytes are used as ecological indicators in determining the trophic (productivity; oligotrophic, mesotrophic, eutrophic, etc.) levels of water bodies and monitoring changes in aquatic ecosystems due to the fact that most of them have steady locations, can be seen with the naked eye and are relatively easy to obtain. Macrophytes are essential components of aquatic ecosystems and in this context of streams and rivers. The presence, abundance, community formation and continuity of macrophytes are the best indicators of the health of the ecosystems in which they are found; water quality and pollution, trophy status. For this reason, the EU Water Framework Directive has introduced macrophyte indices as a requirement for the "good ecological status" of water resources. Some studies on macrophyte indices have started in Türkiye. As a result of the researches, it has been revealed that the most appropriate river index calculation system for the waters of our country is the IBMR index. In this study, macrophyte indices used for rivers in the world and in Türkiye were emphasized. It is necessary to develop and use indices specific to our own country in our water resources, to increase the number of field researches on this subject and to expand the area. The aim of this study is to explain the macrophyte indices used for ecological status determination in Europe and Türkiye and to create scientific data for the studies to be carried out in this field by proposing a suitable index model for our country.