ReviewMonitoring river water quality with transplanted bryophytes: A methodological review

•The methodology used in rivers biomonitoring by transplanted bryophytes is reviewed.•Only the 25% of the articles revised was focused in developing the methodology.•A large number of protocols was reported and many of them have only been used once.•The lack of a well-established methodology hampers the routine use of the technique.•We propose a protocol to extent the use of bryophytes as rivers biomonitors.

The aim of this literature review, which considers 47 articles published between 1989 and 2015, is to ascertain the current status of the active biomonitoring technique for assessing water quality and to evaluate the degree to which different aspects of the method have been standardized. Use of the tool is largely limited to Europe (83% of the articles reviewed). The technique has been used to biomonitor inorganic contaminants (in 96% of the studies) and, to a lesser extent, organic contaminants (4% of the studies). Only 25% of the articles concern methodological aspects of the technique. Moreover, most authors (78%) have only published one article on the topic, and many different protocols have been used in the various studies. As a result, the technique is not standardized, which hampers comparison of the results of different studies. We propose a protocol that would facilitate use of the technique for routine monitoring of the quality of river waters.