ResumenLa pérdida de cobertura vegetal por extracción de biomasa es uno de los problemas más importantes por los que atraviesan los pastizales altoandinos en el Perú. En esta investigación se describen los cambios de corto y mediano plazo de dos tipos de formaciones vegetales altoandinas (césped de puna y bofedal) luego de haberse extraído su biomasa por la actividad humana de "champeo" en los terrenos
As in many other countries, Peru has the Water Quality Standard (WQS) as the primary tool for managing and diagnosing water resources. An analysis of variable by variable was applied to define water quality as poor or good by setting concentration limits. A second group of tools commonly used are Biotic Indexes based on tolerance of benthic macroinvertebrates to pollution, that reflect the impacts caused by a group of variables, even though they cannot identify which variables determine the viability of the ecosystem. This research proposes to include the Stable States approach to evaluate the ecological integrity in central‐Andes rivers to explore an alternative approach with the capacity to represent a broader number of factors through multivariate analyses. A ten‐year database of biological, physical, and chemical variables measured in five Andean Rivers was evaluated. Our results suggest these rivers fluctuate into two seasonal stable states (wet and dry season), accounting for approximately 41% of the system variability. The wet season stable state was defined by high levels of suspended solids and turbidity, coliform, phosphorus, and some metals. During the dry season, the key variables were dissolved solids, barium, pH, and dissolved oxygen. Likewise, there seems to be a third alternative state influenced by human pressures driven by organic pollution variables that exceed the WQS. Regarding water quality, the concentrations of coliforms, phosphorus, and lead usually exceeded the limits in two stations, but not every year. Between bioindicator indexes, the ABI represented the ecological condition more accurately than EPT.
As in many other countries, Peru has the Water Quality Standard (WQS) as
the primary tool for managing and diagnosing water resources. An
analysis variable by variable to define water quality as poor or good
was applied by setting concentration limits. A second group of tools
commonly used are Biotic Indexes based on tolerance of benthic
macroinvertebrates to pollution, that reflect the impacts caused by a
group of variables, even though they cannot identify which variables
determine the viability of the ecosystem. This research proposes to
include the Stable States approach to evaluate the ecological integrity
in central Andes rivers to explore an alternative approach with the
capacity to represent a broader number of factors through multivariate
analysis. A ten-year database of biological and physical-chemical
variables measured in five Andean rivers were evaluated. Our results
suggest these rivers fluctuate into two seasonal stable states (wet and
dry season), accounting for approximately 31% of the system
variability. In the wet season, the equilibrium of the state was
dominated by the highest levels of suspended solids, turbidity,
coliform, phosphorus, and some metals. During the dry season, the key
variables were dissolved oxygen, flow, physical habitat, and biotic and
diversity indexes. Likewise, there seems to be a third alternative state
influenced by human pressures because of variables that exceed the WQS.
Regarding water quality, the concentrations of coliforms, phosphorus,
and lead usually exceeded the limits in two stations, but not every
year. The ecological condition was better represented by ABI index than
EPT.
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