Determination of the ecological water quality in the Orienco stream using benthic macroinvertebrates in the Northern Ecuadorian Amazon

Abstract

In recent years, pollution of watercourses in nearby protected ecosystems has increased due to urbanization. Standard physiochemical methods and probes are one way to monitor watercourses for quality. However, they often do not provide the full ecological status of the body of water. In this work, we set out to assess the ecological water quality of an urban stream by using benthic macroinvertebrates as bioindicators. We conducted the work on the Orienco stream in Lago Agrio in the province of Sucumbíos in the Northern Ecuadorian Amazon (NEA). The stream has become a sink of raw domestic sanitary wastewater from rural and urban areas. A total of 4511 macroinvertebrates from 10 families were identified across 17 sampling points. We compared our results from the biotic indices derived from the macroinvertebrates to standard water‐quality parameters (temperature, conductivity, dissolved oxygen, biochemical oxygen demand, chemical oxygen demand, total suspended solids, ammonia–nitrogen, and pH) simultaneously sampled in the stream. The standard parameter results indicated that the water‐quality levels of the stream met the Ecuadorian water‐quality criteria most of the time. However, the results from the biotic indices classified the stream water as poor or very poor water quality. The results from the Biological Monitoring Working Party, Average Score per Taxon, and Family Biotic Indices had overall scores of heavily polluted waters of 45, 4.5, and 8.74, respectively. Furthermore, these results were consistent with reduced richness and evenness, and overall lower Shannon diversity and relatively higher Simpson Dominance indices of 0.71 and 2.56, respectively. We conclude that the macroinvertebrates were better indicators of the ecological water quality of the Orienco stream than the water‐quality parameters from standard methods and probes alone. Our findings highlight the need for more integrated ecological assessments, which can provide critical information to the management and conservation strategies of urban watercourses in the NEA region. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2023;19:615–625. © 2022 The Authors. Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society of Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry (SETAC).

Limnology and Oceanography Bulletin Volume 32 Number 1 February 2023 1‐40

“…Our motivation for the present Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO) Global Outreach Initiative (GOI) project was based on our previous work with an urban stream in the NEA. In 2020, we monitored the water quality of the largest urban waterway, the Orienco stream, using various approaches including surveying benthic macroinvertebrates (Sinche et al 2022). Our findings highlighted the feasibility and utility of the use of benthic macroinvertebrates as a reliable approach to estimate the overall ecological water quality of a waterway, where climate conditions may vary greatly, and equipment and resources are limited (Sinche et al 2022).…”

“…In 2020, we monitored the water quality of the largest urban waterway, the Orienco stream, using various approaches including surveying benthic macroinvertebrates (Sinche et al 2022). Our findings highlighted the feasibility and utility of the use of benthic macroinvertebrates as a reliable approach to estimate the overall ecological water quality of a waterway, where climate conditions may vary greatly, and equipment and resources are limited (Sinche et al 2022). We were interested in helping others to apply same approach to monitor the water quality of other aquatic ecosystems in the Amazonia.…”

A'i Cofán Indigenous Community Engagement when Implementing Benthic Macroinvertebrate Monitoring as a Bioindicator Tool of Water Quality in the Ecuadorian Amazonia

“…Our motivation for the present Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO) Global Outreach Initiative (GOI) project was based on our previous work with an urban stream in the NEA. In 2020, we monitored the water quality of the largest urban waterway, the Orienco stream, using various approaches including surveying benthic macroinvertebrates (Sinche et al 2022). Our findings highlighted the feasibility and utility of the use of benthic macroinvertebrates as a reliable approach to estimate the overall ecological water quality of a waterway, where climate conditions may vary greatly, and equipment and resources are limited (Sinche et al 2022).…”

“…In 2020, we monitored the water quality of the largest urban waterway, the Orienco stream, using various approaches including surveying benthic macroinvertebrates (Sinche et al 2022). Our findings highlighted the feasibility and utility of the use of benthic macroinvertebrates as a reliable approach to estimate the overall ecological water quality of a waterway, where climate conditions may vary greatly, and equipment and resources are limited (Sinche et al 2022). We were interested in helping others to apply same approach to monitor the water quality of other aquatic ecosystems in the Amazonia.…”

Used macroinvertebrates as bioindicators to compare water quality from different land uses in Watumokala and Nokambu Rivers, Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia

“…The pH value is positively correlated with the dominance value of the Vellidae, Lestidae, and Platystictidae families, but negatively correlated with the Tipulidae and Libellulidae families. Low DO and low pH are a result of the increase in the above polluting elements which can reduce diversity, and the number of EPTs that are intolerant of pollution, but the abundance of macroinvertebrates that are tolerant of pollution can persist and increase (Lima et al 2020;Sinche et al 2023).…”