Evaluación de la Calidad Ecológica del río Jatunhuayco en la zona asociada a la Captación Jatunhuayco (EPMAPS) utilizando comunidades de macroinvertebrados como indicadores de la calidad del agua.

Abstract

In this research project was conducted in the ecological assessment of the Jatunhuayco river around uptake Jatunhuayco belonging to the EPMAPS, in order to generate a baseline of the conservation status of the ecosystem. The evaluation was carried out in accordance with the protocol of the Ecological Quality of Andean Rivers (CERA) which integrates information of the macroinvertebrate community as indicators of water quality (ABI index) and the ecological quality by using indexes of river habitat (IHF) and riverside vegetation (QBR-And). The evaluation was performed in 4 points (before and after the water uptake) in two seasons of sampling (October 2015-January 2016). The results show that the points before the uptake are of ecological quality "Regular", characterized by a low diversity with benthic organisms dominant (Chironomidae and Hyallelidae), and a river habitat with abundance of macrophytes and fine substrate. The riparian vegetation is not shrub (grassland of moorland), and its shows signs of significant alteration by the effects of intensive farming and burning of in previous years. By contrast, downstream of water uptake the landscape is more complex, with substrates of greater size and steeper slope. Despite a drop in the flow, is obtained an ecological quality "good" (greater variability and heterogeneity of macroinvertebrates), due to that hosts a river habitat with a variety of substrates and a riverside vegetation shrub and without anthropic alterations.