Abstract

NINO-DE-GUZMAN TITO, Michael  and  VASQUEZ-RAMOS, Jesús Manuel. Construction of an integral index based on macroinvertebrates to determine the quality of water with agro-industrial influence. Scientia Agropecuaria [online]. 2022, vol.13, n.2, pp.117-123.  Epub May 18, 2022. ISSN 2077-9917.  http://dx.doi.org/10.17268/sci.agropecu.2022.010.

The physicochemical and biological indices have been used in isolation; if the parameters of these indices were applied in an integrated manner, they would bring together in a single measure the functional and structural variability of the biotic and abiotic components of water quality. Therefore, in this research an integral analysis of water quality was carried out; abiotic variables and aquatic macroinvertebrates were used for the construction of the integral index. For this purpose, 11 sampling points were established and selected considering different degrees of agro-industrial intervention. 21 abiotic variables and 27 biological metrics were measured. Macroinvertebrates were quantitatively collected and identified to family taxonomic level. Using a PCA, after standardization and exclusion of uncorrelated variables (VIF ≤ 10), the abiotic gradient was determined, which represented the abiotic variables that explained the disturbances in the water; with the abiotic gradient and the biological metrics, a Pearson correlation was performed, and those biological metrics that presented a high and non-redundant correlation were selected (Pearson 0.6 ≤ r ≤ 0.8); with the selected biological metrics, we proceeded to formulate and categorize the index; finally, by means of simple linear regression, the proposed index was compared with five other indexes (ICA, ICOMO, EPT, BMWP/col. and ASPT). The results showed that the abiotic gradient was defined by CP 1 which explained 65.5% of the accumulated variance, represented by altitude (r = 0.411), iron (r = 0.345) and dissolved oxygen (r = 0.329). The biological metrics used for the index design were: % scrapers, % swimmers, NEF of order 2, Ephemeroptera and Trichoptera tolerance. It was concluded that the integral index presents a higher predictive level (R2 = 0.87) of water quality, compared to the other indices: ASPT (R2 = 0.79), BMWP/col. (R2 = 0.68), EPT (R2 = 0.61), ICOMO (R2 = 0.35) and ICA (R2 = 0.27).

Keywords : Bioevaluation; bioindicator; abiotic gradient; biological metrics; anthropogenic pressures.

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