TY - JOUR
T1 - Water Quality Analysis in a Subtropical River with an Adapted Biomonitoring Working Party (BMWP) Index
AU - Ortega, Guillermo Magallón
AU - Gallardo, Carlos Escalera
AU - López-López, Eugenia
AU - Sedeño-Díaz, Jacinto Elías
AU - Hernández, Martín López
AU - Arroyo-Damián, Miriam
AU - Moncayo-Estrada, Rodrigo
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
PY - 2021/11
Y1 - 2021/11
N2 - Subtropical rivers in developing countries often lack adequate monitoring, which makes it difficult to comprehensively determine their water quality when faced with different anthropic impacts. There are no proper protocols in the regulations to incorporate indicators and adapt them to different biogeographic regions, limiting the potential success of conservation and restoration of river ecosystems. This study proposes implementing macroinvertebrates as bioindicators of water quality in river ecosystems, and modifying the calibration of the widely used Biomonitoring Working Party (BMWP) index for its adaptation in a subtropical river. The Duero River, Mexico, was used as an example in this study. Data were explored with multivariate statistics, and the water quality and habitat values were averaged to obtain the families’ bioindication values and the index categories. The BMWP adequately described a deterioration gradient from the origin to the river mouth (from fair to extremely polluted), with some intermediate recovery points related to the presence of springs. Its performance was compared with other biological indices and exhibited a positive relationship with all of them. In addition, how BMWP changed over time was analyzed by examining previous samples, and highlighted increased river deterioration over time. A calibrated BMWP will allow for long-term monitoring at a low cost.
AB - Subtropical rivers in developing countries often lack adequate monitoring, which makes it difficult to comprehensively determine their water quality when faced with different anthropic impacts. There are no proper protocols in the regulations to incorporate indicators and adapt them to different biogeographic regions, limiting the potential success of conservation and restoration of river ecosystems. This study proposes implementing macroinvertebrates as bioindicators of water quality in river ecosystems, and modifying the calibration of the widely used Biomonitoring Working Party (BMWP) index for its adaptation in a subtropical river. The Duero River, Mexico, was used as an example in this study. Data were explored with multivariate statistics, and the water quality and habitat values were averaged to obtain the families’ bioindication values and the index categories. The BMWP adequately described a deterioration gradient from the origin to the river mouth (from fair to extremely polluted), with some intermediate recovery points related to the presence of springs. Its performance was compared with other biological indices and exhibited a positive relationship with all of them. In addition, how BMWP changed over time was analyzed by examining previous samples, and highlighted increased river deterioration over time. A calibrated BMWP will allow for long-term monitoring at a low cost.
KW - Bioindication value
KW - Developing country
KW - EPT
KW - HQI
KW - Index scores
KW - Multivariate statistics
KW - WQI
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85122312878&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/d13110606
DO - 10.3390/d13110606
M3 - Artículo
AN - SCOPUS:85122312878
SN - 1424-2818
VL - 13
JO - Diversity
JF - Diversity
IS - 11
M1 - 606
ER -