Estudio de los Requerimientos Hidráulicos de las Especies de Macroinvertebrados Bentónicos existentes en los microhábitats de ríos de páramo, caso de estudio: Río Jatunhuayco

Abstract

The objective of this research is to determine the influence of hydrometeorological and hydraulic factors on the diversity of benthic macroinvertebrates existing in the microhabitats of Paramo Rivers, through the use of statistical tools. Considering the wide coverage and complexity that this type of ecosystems possess, the micro-basin of the Jatunhuayco River, located within the Antisana basin, province of Pichincha, Quito canton, was considered as a case study, in the UTM WGS84 coordinates of 9’945.008,11 N; 807.755,47 E, average altitude of 4.135 meters above sea level and area of 40.94 km2, due to the hydraulic, hydrological, relief and biological conditions similar to those of páramo rivers. As results, the general characterization of the study area is presented, based on the compilation and processing of biological, physical - chemical, hydrological and hydraulic information existing and raised in the field; analysis of water quality according to the taxonomy of macroinvertebrate families and physicochemical parameters; generation of standardized hydraulic preference curves, which allow establishing a relationship between the density of benthic macroinvertebrates and fundamental hydraulic parameters such as speed, depth and composition of the substrate and the conceptual hydrological model generated from existing information that allows analyzing the hydrometeorological variation present in the study area, based on series of continuous monthly average data, by means of the estimation of maximum, average and minimum rainfall and temperatures, in addition to maximum, average, minimum and ecological flows, through empirical methods.