The use of littoral benthic macroinvertebrates of the Martín Garcia Island Nature Reserve as indicators of water quality

CÉSAR, INÉS IRMA; MARTÍN, STELLA MARIS; COLLA, MARIA FLORENCIA

Annual Research & Review in Biology

Sciencedomain International

Año: 2019

At Martín García Island?a Natural Reserve located at the confluence of the Paraná and Uruguay rivers?we used benthic-macroinvertebrate biotic indices to elucidate the structure and community parameters of the littoral benthos and their response to environmental variables and to evaluate the island´s coastal-water quality. Seasonal campaigns were carried out (March/1995-March/1996) at eight sites of the island´s littoral sites, selected according to the substrate characteristics (fine sands, sandy-silty, reedbed, and silty with great hydrophyte development). From the sites with a soft substrate, triplicate samples were extracted using a 225-cm2 Ekman manual dredge. The relative abundances of 71 taxa were measured: Nematoda, Turbelaria, Oligochaeta (23 sps.), Mollusca (21 sps.), Crustacea (11 sps.), Insecta (12 families), and Tardigrada. Macroinvertebrate density: 15-58,800 ind.m-2. Analysis of variance revealed significant differences between the average annual macroinvertebrate-population densities among the five sites (F: 3.059; p