An integrated approach to monitor the two main rivers of the “Cilento, Vallo di Diano e Alburni” National Park

The Bussento and Calore Salernitano are among the most important rivers of the “Cilento, Vallo di Diano e Alburni” National Park. In order to develop informed and clever protection of these areas, a 3 year integrated monitoring is underway, combining physico-chemical water monitoring and biomonitoring. The analyses, performed with an average spatial resolution of 1.5 Km (21 sampling sites) and 3.0 Km (18 sampling sites) on the Bussento and Calore Salernitano, respectively, encompass 7 anions, photosynthetic pigments, dissolved oxygen, pH and conductivity in water, as well as 21 chemical elements both in water and in roots of two aquatic plants, Apium nodiflorum (L.) Lag. and Mentha aquatica L. Multivariate identification of spatial outliers, based on indicators of different pollution sources, is employed to identify critical sites and infer on the causes of environmental contamination. According to the results of the 1st year of monitoring, water had an overall outstanding quality in most of the areas at the sampling time, with localized pollution from wastewater discharges, metallic structures/wastes in the riverbed and sulfate leaching from agricultural soils in a few sites. Accumulation of Ni, Cd and Cr in plants sampled in the two springs, one in the Bussento and one in the Calore Salernitano, as well as accumulation of Fe, Mn and As in plants from one site of each river, were highlighted. Laterite inclusions within the carbonates forming the geologic substrate of the areas may account for Cr in springs, but not for Ni and Cd, or Fe, Mn and As, which have likely an anthropogenic origin. Anyway, environmental contamination appears to be extremely localized and with little ecological relevance at river scale.