Science and Technology Production
Article
Authorship
PAZ, LAURA ESTEFANIA
;
Rodriguez M.
;
Bettina Gullo
;
Capítulo, Alberto Rodrigues
Date
2021
Publishing House and Editing Place
ELSEVIER
Magazine
THE SCIENCE OF TOTAL ENVIRONMENT
ELSEVIER
Summary
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SIGEVA
Urbanization and industrialization produce substantial changes in biodiversity and in thefunctionality of ecosystems. However, little is known about how anthropic pressuresmight drive these changes and about their functional consequences. We aimed todetermine the responses of macroinvertebrate biological traits to urban and industrialpollution and assess the impacts of these disturbances on the functional diversity ofthese assemblages. We sampled benthic macroinvertebrates in 27 sites of four b...
Urbanization and industrialization produce substantial changes in biodiversity and in thefunctionality of ecosystems. However, little is known about how anthropic pressuresmight drive these changes and about their functional consequences. We aimed todetermine the responses of macroinvertebrate biological traits to urban and industrialpollution and assess the impacts of these disturbances on the functional diversity ofthese assemblages. We sampled benthic macroinvertebrates in 27 sites of four basinswith different urban disturbance gradients (rural, peri-urban, and urban-industrial),among them the Matanza-Riachuelo River, one of the most polluted basins in the world.We classified macroinvertebrates into 11 traits and 56 categories. Then, we performedan RLQ analysis and computed functional richness, evenness, divergence and Raodiversity indexes for each site and community weighted means for each trait category.The urban and industrial sites (mainly low and middle Matanza-Riachuelo River Basin)showed high concentrations of ammonium, SRP, conductivity, COD, BOD, and organicmatter, as well as the lowest values of DO. The functional richness and Rao index ofthese sites were significantly lower than that of the other sites. Macroinvertebrate traitsassociated with urban and industrial sites were aerial respiration (spiracles), forms ofresistance (eggs or statoblast), cylindrical body shape, oviparity, feeding onmicroinvertebrates, and full water swimmers. These traits potentially enabled tolerantspecies persistence at polluted sites while gills, grazers, and crawlers were sensitive tothese disturbances. Urban and industrial activities influence biological traits, producingthe disappearance or dominance of certain traits in macroinvertebrate assemblages. Asa consequence, extreme pollution caused predictable trait-based community changesresulting in reduced functional diversity, and potentially altered the ecosystem function.
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Key Words
LAND USESPECIES TRAITSFUNCTIONAL DIVERSITYAQUATIC INVERTEBRATESMATANZA-RIACHUELO RIVER BASIN