Use of benthic macroinvertebrates to assess the biological status of Pampean streams in Argentina

By A. Rodrigues Capítulo, Mariana Tangorra, C. Ocon. Aquatic Ecology, 2001

106 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Macro-invertebrate communities and environmental variables were assessed seasonally for two years in seven streams in North-Eastern of Buenos Aires province (Argentina) in order to analyse changes in their structure and composition in relation with the quality of the water. The study includes pristine streams and others affected by urban and industrial effluents with high conductivity, nitrates, nitrites, phosphates and low oxygen content. Organisms with well-known pollution tolerance were identified to assess biological water quality, using a new Biotic Index (IBPAMP: Biotic Index for PAMPean rivers and streams) in comparison with other existing biotic indices. The usefulness of principal component analysis (PCA) and correlation matrices were examined to evaluate the efficiency of the method to assess disturbances. In general IBPAMP did well correlate with several classical measures of biological water quality (taxon richness, diversity and several biotic indices). The El Gato stream was the most disturbed ecosystem among all studied sites. It was characterised by low dissolved oxygen levels, high turbidity in the middle course, high BOD5 (>30 mg l−1) and COD (>40 mg l−1) values. The Buñirigo stream has a bad quality in the industrial area, but varying according to the dry and wet periods. In general, in the mountainous areas the water quality of streams was good with the exception of the stations located downstream of cities like Ayacucho on the Tandileofú stream.

Subfields: Ecology, Environmental Chemistry, Water Science and Technology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/808e9065932ceee888fffd474357d64b52a7afbc

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In Ecology

1. D. Trigg
2. N. Gómez
3. M. Paisley
4. M. Licursi
5. P. Marco
6. Leandro Juen
7. W. Walley

In Environmental Chemistry

1. D. Trigg
2. N. Gómez
3. M. Paisley
4. M. Licursi
5. Leandro Juen
6. W. Walley

In Water Science and Technology

1. D. Trigg
2. N. Gómez
3. M. Paisley
4. M. Licursi
5. W. Walley

Citations in the corpus

• REVISION OF THE BIOLOGICAL MONITORING WORKING PARTY (BMWP) SCORE SYSTEM: DERIVATION OF PRESENT‐ONLY AND ABUNDANCE‐RELATED SCORES FROM FIELD DATA (2014, methodology): “Because of its advantages modifications of the BMWP score system have been developed for use in a number of other countries including Spain (Zamora-Munoz and Alba-Tercedor, 1996), Argentina (Capítulo et al., 2001), Poland (Kownacki et al., 2004) and Thailand (Mustow, 2002).”
• The Pampean Diatom Index (IDP) for assessment of rivers and streams in Argentina (2001, methodology): “The IDP was compared with the diatom indices IPS (Index Polluosensitivity Specific) ID Index Descy and Sladecek’s index (Descy & Coste, 1990) and the macroinvertebrate index IBPAMP (Biotic Index for Pampean rivers) (Rodrigues Capítulo et al., 2001).”
• The influence of habitat integrity and physical-chemical water variables on the structure of aquatic and semi-aquatic Heteroptera (2010, background): “…of several other authors who have stated that macroinvertebrates are more useful as indicators of environmental quality in water bodies (YODER & RANKIN 1998, CAPÍTULO et al. 2001, HOUGHTON 2004, SHARTAU et al. 2008, ARIMORO & IKOMI 2009, TESTI et al. 2009) than physical-chemical parameters.”