Aquatic macroinvertebrates as water quality bioindicators in Colombia: A systematic review

Abstract

The use of aquatic macroinvertebrates to assess water quality has been growing during the last 50 years in Colombia. We conducted a systematic review of 109 references to analyze scientific production related to the evaluation of water quality in Colombian freshwater ecosystems, using aquatic macroinvertebrates. We describe bibliographical, geographical, ecological, and methodological characteristics of these studies. In the last two decades, there was an increase of more than 50% of publications. The Andean region was the most studied, while the other regions had few research. Lotic ecosystems were widely studied, unlike the lentic ones. The main land use management was agricultural. BMWP and diversity indices were the most used in the analyses. Further research is necessary in lentic ecosystems since they are being severely impacted by anthropogenic pressures, but were not assessed yet. Different regions that harbor diverse aquatic ecosystems (e.g. Amazon, Orinoquia) have been little studied. There is a critical need to revisit traditional indices, aiming at avoiding wrong assumptions about the relation between aquatic macroinvertebrates communities and water quality. For this purpose, it is recommended that assumptions and conditions required for using the indices, high taxonomic resolution, and new approaches, such as effective number of species, are taken into account.

Confirmation of Homoeoneuria Eaton, Confirmation of Homoeoneuria Eaton, 1881 (Ephemeroptera: Oligoneuriidae) record in Colombia

“…Ephemeroptera is considered one of the most important groups of benthic macroinvertebrates in the Neotropics (Salles, et al, 2004). Besides the occupation of many available meso-habitats contributing to their biomass and diversity in freshwater ecosystems, these insects are water quality indicators and have been widely used in biomonitoring studies (Roldán-Pérez, 2003;Springer, 2010;Forero-Céspedes & Reynoso-Flórez, 2013;Castillo-Figueroa, et al, 2018). Although considerable progress has been made in the study of Ephemeroptera taxonomy along the Neotropical region (Gutiérrez & Reinoso-Flórez, 2010;Gutiérrez & Dias, 2015;Marín-Eslava, et al, 2021;Molineri, et al, 2021), more information is still needed regarding the biogeography of this order in South America (Domínguez, et al, 2006).…”

Evaluación de la calidad ecológica de los ríos Quirpinchaca y Cachimayu usando macroinvertebrados como bioindicadores de contaminación

“…Distintos países han empleado métodos biológicos sencillos de evaluación de calidad de aguas, como el método cualitativo BMWP (Equipo de Trabajo sobre Monitoreo Biológico), originalmente desarrollado en Inglaterra (Armitage et al, 1983), y fácilmente adaptado, aunque con ciertas limitaciones a países de Sudamérica p.e. Colombia (Roldán, 1999;Castillo-Figueroa, 2018), Brasil (Junqueira & Campos, 1998, Argentina (Fernández et al 2002), Bolivia (p.e. Molina et al, 2008Cammaerts et al, 2008;MMAyA, 2012), este método se basa sencillamente en la presencia de familias de macroinvertebrados y sus valores de tolerancia a la contaminación, cuya suma de los valores de tolerancia da un valor de índice de calidad de aguas.…”

Altitudinal distribution of the functional feeding groups of aquatic macroinvertebrates using an ecological network in Andean streams

“…The importance of aquatic macroinvertebrates as indicators of environmental conditions lies in the benthic life form of these organisms, their longer life cycles compared other aquatic organisms like bacteria and algae, and their specialized adaptation to specific environmental characteristics (Castillo-Figueroa et al, 2018;Roldán-Pérez, 2016). These aspects become a response to the assessment of the space-time conditions of the environment in which they are found (National Academy of Sciences, 1988;Rosenberg & Resh, 1993).…”