Impact of anthropogenic activities on water quality parameters of glacial lakes from Rodnei mountains, Romania

• Published in: Environmental research Vol. 182; p. 109136
• Main Authors: Roșca, Oana Mare, Dippong, Thomas, Marian, Monica, Mihali, Cristina, Mihalescu, Lucia, Hoaghia, Maria-Alexandra, Jelea, Marian
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Elsevier Inc 01-03-2020
• Subjects: Health risk; Heavy metals; Pollution indices; Quality index; Rodnei mountains national park; Water quality; Quality index; Rodnei mountains national park; Heavy metals; Pollution indices; Water quality; Health risk
• ISSN: 0013-9351; 1096-0953
• DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2020.109136

The aim of this paper is to assess the water quality from several lakes in Rodnei Mountains National Park, in order to establish the extent to which the anthropic activities, such as livestock and tourism affect the water characteristics. The paper presents the quality status of 13 water samples, collected from different mountain lakes from Romania, by monitoring 25 quality indicators, 21 metals and metalloids. The results indicate relatively high content of NH4+ (0.96 mg/L), NO2− (0.240 mg/L), Ca (38.44 mg/L), Mg (4.35 mg/L), Fe (288 mg/L), Cu (34.46 μg/L) and high values for turbidity (5.31 NTU), chemical oxygen demand (10.00 mgO2/L) and suspended materials (88.0 mg/L). Microbiological analyses were performed for 14 types of bacteria. In some samples, the faecal coliforms (1100 bacteria/mL), faecal streptococci (39 bacteria/mL) and aerobic heterotrophic bacteria at 37 °C (300 bacteria/mL) were relatively in a high content. The metal pollution indices (heavy metal pollution index –HPI, heavy metal evaluation index –HEI and the degree of contamination -Cd) indicated as well that the water samples presented no metal pollution. Values ranged from 5.17 to 27.84 for HPI, 0.55 to 5.07 for HEI and −8.45 to −3.93 for Cd were obtained. The water quality index (WQI) indicated excellent and good quality for the studied samples, with a mean of 22.6 and a range from 11.4 to 46.9.
•Assessment of the physico-chemical parameters indicated a good quality and low anthropogenic impact.•The water quality index indicated low values characterizing the water samples into good and excellent quality.•The metal pollution indices indicated no pollution with metals, which correlates to the metal concentrations.•R-mode cluster analysis presented the characteristics of water samples with the most similar variations were correlated.