Avaliação da qualidade da água do rio Manguaba, estado de Alagoas, Brasil, com ênfase na comunidade de macroinvertebrados bentônicos.

Abstract

The Manguaba river basin is located in the State of Alagoas, Brazil. It has an estimated area of 352 km2 and it drains part of the counties of Novo Lino, Jundiá, Porto Calvo, Japaratinga and Porto de Pedras. Since the riverhead, visible anthropic interferences can be detected. The river crosses rural zones (where sugar-cane crops predominate), as well as urban areas. With the aim of evaluate the environmental conditions of this river, and considering the regional context, this thesis is the first study in the State of Alagoas on benthic macroinvertebrates carried out in fluvial environment. The different anthropic activities developed along the river was the criterium to establish seven stations for collection purposes, that were plotted between 08º59 S - 35º42 W e 09º04 S - 35º22 W. The samples were collected on rainy and dry season, during 2001 and 2002. Samples of superficial water and bottom sediments were used for abiotic analyses. Fauna samples were done to study qualitative and quantitative features. Four higher groups were detected, with 76 taxonomic categories. Chironomidae (Insecta: Diptera), with 28 genera, was the most important among the 44 families identified. Larvae of Chironomidae, Oligochaeta (Tubificidae, Naididae), Hirudinea (Glossiphoniidae) and Mollusca (mainly Thiaridae) overtopped in high density and occurrence. Among Chironomidae Procladius and Chironomus were dominant in the area of the riverhead and Polypedilum (Tripodura) was an important group all along the river. Diversity and evenness indices indicated low to medium values. The similarity analysis and multivariate correspondence analysis distinguished the riverhead from the other sampling stations. Among the last ones, the results indicated higher impacts at on the stations near urban areas. This could be confirmed by the faunistic composition of taxonomic groups known as tolerant.