School of Environmental Sustainability, Loyola University Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA.
Department of Life Sciences, Universidad Estatal Amazónica, Nueva Loja, Sucumbíos, Ecuador.
Integr Environ Assess Manag. 2023 May;19(3):615-625. doi: 10.1002/ieam.4666. Epub 2022 Aug 30.
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).
近年来，由于城市化的发展，附近受保护生态系统中的水道污染有所增加。标准的理化方法和探头是监测水道水质的一种方法。然而，它们通常不能提供水体的完整生态状况。在这项工作中，我们着手使用底栖大型无脊椎动物作为生物指标来评估城市溪流的生态水质。我们在厄瓜多尔亚马逊北部苏昆比奥斯省拉戈阿格里奥的奥里恩科溪流进行了这项工作（NEA）。这条溪流已经成为来自农村和城市地区的原始生活污水的汇流。在 17 个采样点共鉴定出 10 个科的 4511 个大型无脊椎动物。我们将从大型无脊椎动物得出的生物指数的结果与同时在溪流中采样的标准水质参数（温度、电导率、溶解氧、生化需氧量、化学需氧量、总悬浮固体、氨氮和 pH）进行了比较。标准参数结果表明，该溪流的水质水平大部分时间都符合厄瓜多尔的水质标准。然而，生物指数的结果将溪流水归类为水质较差或很差。生物监测工作组、每个分类单元的平均得分和科生物指数的结果的总得分分别为 45、4.5 和 8.74，表明水污染严重。此外，这些结果与丰富度和均匀度降低以及总体较低的香农多样性和相对较高的辛普森优势度指数 0.71 和 2.56 一致。我们得出的结论是，与单独使用标准方法和探头的水质参数相比，大型无脊椎动物是奥里恩科溪流生态水质的更好指标。我们的研究结果强调需要进行更综合的生态评估，这可以为东北亚马逊地区城市水道的管理和保护策略提供关键信息。综合环境评估与管理 2023;19:615-625。© 2022 作者。综合环境评估与管理由 Wiley 期刊公司代表环境毒理与化学学会（SETAC）出版。
