Method of ecological standardization of the impact on water bodies that cannot be standardized by bioassay: Case study of water bodies in Don basin

The work is focused on studying the possibility to ecologically standardize the characteristics that are not concentrations of chemical substances, i.e., water abundance; water temperature; and pH, which does not belong to standardized characteristics. The initial data include the data of biological (water quality classes by characteristics of plankton, periphyton, and zoobenthos) and physicochemical monitoring in 1975–1991 in water bodies of the Lower Don, as well as data on fish catches and yield in the Lower Don. The values of ecologically tolerable levels are obtained for three factors, such that going above these levels causes the environmental ill-being of the appropriate biological indicator. Nonchemical impacts, represented by water abundance and temperature have almost no effect on the deterioration of ichthyological estimates of the state (the only exception is the correlation between water abundance and sabrefish catches). At the same time, planktonic and benthic estimates appear to be more sensitive indicators of water quality decline in all three factors under consideration. The pH exponent affects all ecological groupings of Don ecosystems. The strictest upper boundaries of ecologically tolerable levels of water abundance were recorded for the sabrefish catches. On the other hand, insufficient water abundance during spring and summer deteriorates the state of planktonic and benthic organisms.