Restoration of a river landscape: Biotopes as a basis for quantification of species diversity and evaluation of landscape quality

This study was conducted in three river stretches, which are comparable in their natural features and conditions, but whose principal difference is in floodplain land use. Thus, they are different in the extent to which anthropogenic disturbance influences the river. The sum of the biotopes in each stretch was measured and groups of functional biotope types made. Biotopes diversity indices, as well as species diversity in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems measured by the Shannon-Wiener function and by the Simpson's index, were calculated. Microbiotopes were defined and species diversity was measured within them.