Abstract

MURILLO-MONTOYA, Sergio Adrián; MENDOZA-MORA, Alexander; RESTREPO-BASTIDAS, Edwin Santiago  and  RODRIGUEZ, Miguel Ángel. Utilization of aquatic macroinvertebrates as a tool to determine water quality in Santo Tomás ravine, Pensilvania municipality (Colombia). Rev. acad. colomb. cienc. exact. fis. nat. [online]. 2018, vol.42, n.164, pp.212-220. ISSN 0370-3908.  https://doi.org/10.18257/raccefyn.655.

Despite the water wealth of the municipality of Pensilvania, Caldas, and the growing use of aquatic macroinvertebrates as a simple, efficient and low-cost tool to determine water quality in various ecosystems, no studies of this type are known in the municipality. The objective of this research was to evaluate the diversity of aquatic macroinvertebrates and the water quality of the Santo Tomás stream in the municipality of Pennsylvania. Samples of macroinvertebrates were collected between June and August 2015 in different habitats (submerged leaf litter, fine sediment, and rocks), using a Surber net. There were 2,175 individuals belonging to 97 taxonomic groups; the most abundant orders were Trichoptera and Ephemeroptera (54%). No significant differences were found (p> 0.05) in terms of diversity between the evaluated sites and, according to the BMWP / Col and EPT indices, the waters are very clean, although the ASPT index indicated the presence of lightly to moderately polluted waters.

Keywords : Biological diversity; Bioindicadors; Water sources; Rural aqueducts; Monitoring; Aquatic ecosystems.

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