Abstract
Influence of cattle ranching on the community of aquatic macroinvertebrates in watersheds of central Andes, Colombia. In order to measure the impact of cattle ranching and riparian corridors on the composition and diversity of benthic macroinvertebrates in Andean watersheds, nine headwater streams were selected in the municipality of Villamaría (Caldas, Colombia), five of them with riparian corridors and four without protection. In july (2013) in each stream, macroinvertebrate samples were collected using D and Surber nets, and streams were characterized according to water quality, channel metrics and habitat quality score. In total 98 934 individuals were collected, distributed in nine classes, 17 orders, 56 families and 92 genera. Veneroidea was the most abundant order followed by Trichoptera, Diptera, Tubificida and Ephemeroptera. Coleoptera was the order with highest richness with 28 genera, followed by Diptera with 18, Trichoptera with 11, Ephemeroptera with 10 and Odonata with 8. Streams with riparian corridors were deeper, had higher proportion of coarse substrates and Habitat Quality Score and presented higher genus diversity than those unprotected (p<0.05). The genera Ferrisia, Eurygerris, Heleobia and Pisidium, total nitrogen, ammonia nitrogen and silt proportion on the streambed were correlated with unprotected streams, whilst the genus Rhagovelia, the subfamily Chironominae, the Habitat Quality Score and the proportion of coarse substrates were correlated with streams with riparian corridors. This information confirms that riparian corridors help reducing the negative impact generated by cattle ranching practices and improve the provision of environmental services, and therefore it is recommended to maintain the strip of riparian vegetation in streams that possess it and allow the establishment of this in streams devoid of forest on its slopes.Key words: Watersheds, riparian corridors, benthos, water quality.
Highlights
En Colombia la actividad ganadera es de gran importancia para la economía rural y la oferta alimentaria del país (FEDEGAN, 2006)
Características biofísicas: Las fuentes de agua con bosque ribereño son significativamente más profundas (P= 0.0009) y tienden a ser más anchas que los arroyos desprotegidos
Aquatic macroinvertebrates composition collected in streams with riparian corridor (CR) and without riverside corridor (SCR) in a cattle landscape of the municipality of Villamaría, Caldas, Colombia)
Summary
Área de estudio: El presente estudio se llevó a cabo en quebradas de primer orden ubicadas en la zona ganadera del municipio de Villamaría (Caldas, Colombia) a una altura de 2 400 msnm, entre las coordenadas 05°00’9.7” N - 75°26’17.4” W & 05°01’3.7” N - 75°27’13.6” W. Además se determinó la diversidad alfa, beta y gama, de la zona ganadera de Villamaría con el método propuesto por Jost (2010) y se comparó la composición de macroinvertebrados en las nueve quebradas de muestreo mediante un análisis MDS, para el que se utilizó el índice de similitud de Bray Curtis. Coleoptera y Diptera fueron los órdenes que presentaron mayor número de géneros exclusivos en las quebradas con bosques ribereños (siete géneros cada uno), seguidos de Ephemeroptera con tres. Aparecen dos grupos principales (similitud del 40 %), el primero está conformado por las quebradas desprotegidas, a excepción de La Edelmira, que CUADRO 1 Diversidad alfa, beta y gama de la comunidad de macroinvertebrados en nueve arroyos con influencia ganadera en Villamaría, Caldas, Colombia
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