Biomonitoring techniques such as the South African Scoring System version 5 (SASSv5) is widely used in South Africa to rapidly assess river water quality, but there are currently no equivalent rapid monitoring tools for fine sediment assessments. This article presents a tool that monitors the effects of fine sediment on macroinvertebrates that can be used alongside the SASSv5 assessment. Sampling was carried out in the Tsitsa River in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. Five sampling surveys were conducted over one hydrological year to capture a range of flow conditions resulting in a total of 90 sampling points across five sampling sites. Using an adaption of the SASSv5 methods, sampling was undertaken at a quadrat scale, rather than at a site scale, to identify macroinvertebrate families in different habitat types and degrees of sediment deposition. Fine sediment sampling using a disturbance technique was undertaken immediately upstream of 78 of the biological sampling points. A taxa-related sediment deposition score was created in which taxa were scored in terms of their sensitivity to fine sediment accumulation. The index was tested as a monitoring tool at 11 monitoring sites along the Tsitsa River in different seasons and flow conditions in 2019 and 2020.

中文翻译：

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基于大型无脊椎动物群落结构对南非东开普省 Tsitsa 河细床沉积物成分的响应，开发与分类群相关的物理栖息地评分

南非评分系统第 5 版 (SASSv5) 等生物监测技术在南非广泛用于快速评估河流水质，但目前还没有用于细沉积物评估的等效快速监测工具。本文介绍了一种监测细粒沉积物对大型无脊椎动物的影响的工具，可与 SASSv5 评估一起使用。采样是在南非东开普省的 Tsitsa 河中进行的。在一个水文年中进行了五次抽样调查，以捕获一系列流量条件，从而在五个采样点共设置了 90 个采样点。使用 SASSv5 方法的改编，采样是在样方尺度上进行的，而不是在现场尺度上，识别不同栖息地类型和沉积物沉积程度的大型无脊椎动物科。直接在 78 个生物采样点的上游进行了使用扰动技术的细泥沙采样。创建了一个与分类群相关的沉积物沉积评分，其中根据对细颗粒沉积物积累的敏感性对分类群进行评分。该指数作为监测工具，于 2019 年和 2020 年在 Tsitsa 河沿岸 11 个监测点在不同季节和流量条件下进行了测试。