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Abstract
We studied the tubificid communities of the lower reaches of two Veneto rivers: the Adige and the Brenta.
Our purpose was to investigate whether there is a marked variation in the composition of the family between the stations located upstream in the “tidal-freshwater” zone, and those seaward in the true estuarine zone.
Our data suggest that it is possible to detect a limit between the two zones only for the river Brenta; in fact, in this river the tubificid communities of the three first stations, where the water salinity range is highest, are much poorer then those found in other stretches of the rivers.
Conversely, in the river Adige the tidal-freshwater and the estuarine zones cannot easily be separated: the same tubificid species were found in all stations of the reach examined and the water salinity never exceeds 2.7% also in the seaward station.