Diatoms as indicators of historical water quality: A comparison of samples taken in the Wemmershoek catchment (Western Province, South Africa) in 1960 and 2008

Authors

  • WR Harding DH Environmental Consulting, Cape Town, South Africa
  • JC Taylor 1. School of Biological Sciences, North-West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa; 2. South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity, Grahamstown, South Africa

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.4314/wsa.v40i4.4

Keywords:

diatoms, water quality, South Africa, Biological Diatom Index, South African Diatom Index

Abstract

Historical diatom records provide a means of retrospectively determining water quality and inferring ecological condition in rivers and streams. In this study we re-sampled sites originally sampled 48 years previously. We then determined the scores for the Biological Diatom Index (BDI) and the South African Diatom Index (SADI) for each dataset. The results revealed that the present day conditions in this relatively undisturbed locality were almost identical to those reflected by the samples collected half a century before. This illustrates the value of historical diatom data for the purposes of determining antecedent water quality.

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Published

2025-03-30

Issue

Vol. 40 No. 4 October (2014): Water SA

Section

Short communication

License

Copyright (c) 2025 WR Harding, JC Taylor

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

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The content of this journal is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Licence.  Users are permitted to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal under the terms of this Licence, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author, provided the source is attributed. Copyright is retained by the authors.

How to Cite

WR Harding and JC Taylor (2025) “Diatoms as indicators of historical water quality: A comparison of samples taken in the Wemmershoek catchment (Western Province, South Africa) in 1960 and 2008”, Water SA, 40(4 October). doi:10.4314/wsa.v40i4.4.