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Updated: May 31, 2026

A Low-Cost Method of Measuring the In Situ Primary Productivity of Periphyton Communities of Lentic Waters
Published on: December 16, 2022
Biomass estimation across the benthic community in polluted freshwater sediment--a promising endpoint in microcosm
Michael Faupel1, Kai Ristau, Walter Traunspurger
1Department of Animal Ecology, University of Bielefeld, Morgenbreede 45, 33615 Bielefeld, Germany. michael.faupel@uni-bielefeld.de
Abstract:
With respect to the ecological relevance of endpoints, biomass as an endpoint might be promising regarding ecotoxicological assessments of benthic communities. In a freshwater microcosm study the effect of two cadmium (Cd) concentrations (50 and 400 mg Cd kg(-1) dw) on biomass and abundance of a benthic community were investigated over a period of seven months. Specifically, the sensitivity of both endpoints in distinguishing differential effects was compared. While bacteria were found to be unaffected by Cd, abundance and biomass of protozoans and metazoans decreased. In a short-term comparison, differences between control and Cd treatments were, overall, more pronounced for flagellate biomass and for metazoan abundance with strong differences between the taxonomic groups; furthermore, over the long-term, the differences among organisms and endpoints changed. Based on toxicant sensitivity, the reasonably low variance of the data and the workload involved, biomass can provide a useful additional endpoint in microcosm studies.
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