Abstract

TOBIAS-LOAIZA, Melizza  and  GUZMAN-SOTO, Cristian. Structural variation of families of aquatic macroinvertebrates and their relationship with the quality of water in streams associated with coffee crops and beef cattle in La Tagua, Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. Rev. acad. colomb. cienc. exact. fis. nat. [online]. 2022, vol.46, n.178, pp.206-216.  Epub Sep 10, 2023. ISSN 0370-3908.  https://doi.org/10.18257/raccefyn.1577.

Tropical ecosystems are fragmented and affected by human activities. Understanding how these activities affect biodiversity is very important for the conservation and management of aquatic ecosystems. In the present study, we evaluated the structural variation of the families of aquatic macroinvertebrates and their relationship with water quality in streams associated with coffee crops and beef cattle in La Tagua, Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. We selected three sampling sites: one with the influence of beef cattle (La Cuca), another close to coffee crops (La Marrana), and an area without evident productive intervention that served as a reference site (Doña Sofía). A total of 7367 individuals were collected distributed in 29 families and 10 orders. The orders with the highest number of families were Diptera, Trichoptera, and Hemiptera with five families each. Significant differences were found in the abundances of the families between the sites (Anosim: R = 0.026; p = 0.035). According to the BMWP-Col index, La Cuca stream presented moderately polluted water while in La Marrana the water was slightly contaminated and, in the Doña Sofía, it had good quality.

Finally, families tolerant to organic contamination were associated with streams close to coffee crops and beef cattle while in the reference stream we registered an increase in the abundance and the number of families sensitive to levels of contamination.

Keywords : Bioindicator; BMWP index; Agriculture; Livestock.

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