Evaluación de la calidad del agua, en un tramo de la microcuenca del Río Quebrada, cantón Morona utilizando macroinvertebrados bentónicos como bioindicadores.

Abstract

The objective was to evaluate the water quality in a section of the Quebrada River micro-watershed (Water catchment – La Unión), Morona town, using benthic macroinvertebrates as bioindicators. The investigation began with the selection of five monitoring stations distributed along 2367 m; one located upstream of the intake point and identified as a river Quebrada control point (RQCP) and four after the intake point along the Quebrada river path (RQP1, RQP2, RQP3, RQP4) Samplings are carried out for a period of three months (March, May, June) in each station was made the measurement of physical-chemical parameters in situ, measurement of the flow, through the method of windmill, obtaining an average flow of 0.11m3 / s and the collection of macroinvertebrates using the Surber network and the network D. The identification of the specimens collected in each station was made in he laboratory of the Provincial Council of Morona Santiago and the samples were sent under cold chain to an external laboratory for the analysis of the most relevant parameters that showed the following values: dissolved oxygen, 7.92 mg / l; temperature, 0.53 °C; Fecal coliforms, 1117.33 CFU / 100ml; pH, 7.14 BOD5, 3.84 mg / l. According to the biological measurement indices, it was registered a total of 3821 specimens, corresponding 12 orders and 39 families. The means obtained by the BMWP / Col index determines the water quality is GOOD; the ICA-NSF index determines that the water is of GOOD QUALITY; the ETP index determines that the water quality is GOOD. Based on these results, a mitigation proposal was proposed for the stations RQP2, RQP3, RQP4 in order to optimize and conserve this water resource.