Uso de diatomeas epilíticas como bioindicadores para la evaluación de la calidad del agua del río Jimbitono de la parroquia General Proaño del cantón Morona de la provincia de Morona

Abstract

The main of the current research work was to evaluate the water quality of the Jimbitono River throughepilithic diatoms as bioindicators, as well as the analysis of physicochemical parameters for the application of the ICA and ITCA. It established three monitoring stations along the Jimbitono River with a single sampling made in June. The first station was considered the place where the Jimbitono River is born in its natural state and the 2 stations where there is intervention and human settlements. A simple sampling was carried out at the monitoring stations where the physicochemical parameters required for the analysis of the Water Quality Index (WQI) and the extraction of epilithic diatoms were analyzed. As results, a Regular Water Quality Index was obtained for stations PJ-01 and PJ-02 and Bad for station PJ-03, the last which is explained by the human interventions generated upstream of that station. In the analysis of epilithic diatoms, 1800 diatom organisms corresponding to 56 species were found, the most representative was the species Craticula molestiformis with 122 organisms. The ITCA result was obtained using the trophic values of 1, 2, 5 and 4 according to the abundance of epilithic diatoms in the monitoring stations where an oligotrophic level of negligible pollution was obtained at station PJ-01, for PJ-02 a ß-mesotrophic level of moderate pollution and for PJ-03 a α-mesotrophic level of strong pollution. Therefore, the hypothesis was confirmed since within station PJ-03 there is disturbance in water quality due to the effect of anthropogenic activities. It recommends at the time of sampling to make use of all materials and measuring equipment in order to not exert any influence on the results.