Ecological, anatomical and physiological traits of benthic macroinvertebrates : their use on the health characterization of freshwater ecosystems
After some studies made in Northern Portuguese freshwater ecosystems using the benthic macroinvertebrate communities for water quality evaluation, it has been possible to see that only the analysis of some characteristics allowed to distinguish different levels of environmental disturbance. The stud...
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| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2008 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona |
| Repositorio: | Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB |
| Idioma: | inglés |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:ddd.uab.cat:27996 |
| Acceso en línea: | https://ddd.uab.cat/record/27996 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Macroinvertebrats Fisiologia respiratòria Qualitat de l'aigua Limnologia Macroinvertebrados Fisiología respiratoria Calidad del agua Limnología Macroinvertebrates, breathing physiology, water quality, limnology |
| Sumario: | After some studies made in Northern Portuguese freshwater ecosystems using the benthic macroinvertebrate communities for water quality evaluation, it has been possible to see that only the analysis of some characteristics allowed to distinguish different levels of environmental disturbance. The studies of some characteristics of the macroinvertebrates and the comparison with the results of the physico-chemical parameters analysed show that the more disturbed the ecosystems had, the lower dissolved oxygen concentration and organisms with greater independence from this concentration. The objective of this work is to define groups of organisms, attending to some of their characteristics that are related to getting oxygen. The groups were defined through bibliographic information and from direct observation of their behaviour. The ability of these groups to distinguish different types of ecosystems was analysed by comparison of the obtained results on their distribution in a group of sampling sites located along gradients of contamination, with the results obtained by the calculation of biological indices, descriptive metric analyses of the community, and the water chemical quality. After this study, it is possible to say that the results obtained with the use of respiratory groups can be more informative than that obtained with the analysis of the physico-chemical parameters or other biological parameters. |
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