Abstract

TAPIA, Liliana et al. Benthic invertebrates as bioindicators of water quality in Lagoons Altoandins of Per. Ecol. apl. [online]. 2018, vol.17, n.2, pp.149-163. ISSN 1726-2216.  http://dx.doi.org/10.21704/rea.v17i2.1235.

The objective of this study was to estimate the diversity and abundance of benthic invertebrates in high Andean lagoons of Peru and determine their possible use as biological indicators. A total of 16 lagoons were sampled, 4 in the Rímac river basin and 12 in the Mantaro basin during the dry season (June-October 2015). We determined 34 families, Phylum Arthropoda obtained the highest relative richness and relative abundance of organisms (72.3% and 89.1%, respectively), followed by Phylum Annelida (12.8% and 4.3%, respectively), Mollusca (6.4% and 5.4%, respectively) and Platyhelminthes (8.5% and 1.2%, respectively). Of the 34 families, the Insecta Class predominated with 24 families distributed in 6 orders, within which the order Diptera was more representative with 7 families, followed by the Coleoptera Order with 5 families. The analysis of similarity (ANOSIM) showed that at a spatial level there are significant differences between the studied lagoons (R = 0.4845 and p = 0.0001). The Percentage Similarity Analysis (SIMPER) found dissimilarities at spatial and temporal level, where the families Corixidae (Hemiptera), Chironomidae (Diptera) and Hyalellidae (Amphipoda) are the ones that influence the structure of the community. The Canonical Correlation Analysis (CCA) reported a higher correlation of insects, bivalves, gastropods and oligochaetes with respect to high values of conductivity, pH, temperature and dissolved oxygen. (Past version 2.17, p = 0.0001). Of the total variance, the abundance of taxa was due to the first 2 axes, the species-environmental correlations were of 53.86% for the first and 29.91% for the second axis respectively, explaining an environmental species relationship of 83.78%. The non-parametric Multidimensional Scaling (NMDS) analysis obtained a stress of 2D = 0.12, showing that the Canchis and Churuca lagoons tend to be separated from the rest. The families Chironomidae, Cyprididae, Corixidae and Hyalellidae were resistant to environmental conditions altered by organic matter and heavy metals. According to the ABI values of the 16 lagoons sampled, the lagoons Marca, Huaroncocha, Ticticocha, Yananyacu and Huacracocha presented the highest value, considered moderate ecological status, while the Huascocha, Canchis and Churuca lakes were considered to be in poor condition, and the remaining nine as bad.

Keywords : ABI; bioindicators; metals; ecological integrity.

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