Costa Rica
Guardado en:
| Autores: | , , |
|---|---|
| Formato: | capítulo de libro |
| Fecha de Publicación: | 2014 |
| Descripción: | Costa Rica is a country with abundant and diverse freshwater ecosystems, which are influenced and characterized by different orographic precipitation regimes. This variety of habitats harbors great biological diversity, particularly freshwater macroinvertebrates which are abundant and represent a large number of species. Due to increasing interest in this group over the past two decades, a considerable number of scientific publications exists about their taxonomy, biology and ecology at both the species and assemblage levels. Nevertheless, it is notable that non-insect macroinvertebrate groups, with the exception of Decapods, represent the least amount of published works, while a large amount of taxonomic information is available for aquatic insects, especially Odonata, Trichoptera and Ephemeroptera. Studies of their ecology and natural history continue to represent a little-explored area, and most of the investigations have focused on lotic environments, demonstrating limited knowledge about lentic habitats. The state of conservation of macroinvertebrates in Costa Rica is difficult to determine because of the lack of information about the geographic distribution and ecological aspects of the organisms. Nevertheless, their protection and conservation could be considered to be adequate as long as ecosystem protection measures in continental waters maintain ecological integrity, population viability, connectivity and representativeness of the species and the ecological systems. In terms of their serving as bioindicators of water quality, macroinvertebrates have been used in Costa Rica for monitoring projects and for different academic activities, such as courses, graduate and postgraduate theses and research projects. Interest on the part of government agencies and non-governmental organizations in this type of study has also been growing. This awareness about the usefulness of macroinvertebrate assemblages as indicators of water quality, along with concern about the high degree of contamination in many rivers in the country, has led to their being included in an executive decree (33903-MINAE-S 2007). This regulation governs the evaluation and classification of the quality of surface water bodies in the country and establishes the BMWP-CR index (Biological Monitoring Working Party, adapted for Costa Rica) for biological monitoring. Although a considerable number of publications exists, more in-depth knowledge is still lacking about the taxonomy, ecology and geographic distribution of most freshwater organisms. In addition, the relationship between national and international investigations needs to be explored in order to avoid duplicating efforts and to improve lines of work, as well as to refine the indices used for the biomonitoring of water quality and increase the availability of the information generated. Lastly, current and future investigations are expected to support the creation of guidelines and appropriate strategies to meet the objectives for freshwater ecosystem conservation, as well as to reduce anthropogenic pressures and preserve biodiversity. |
| País: | Kérwá |
| Institución: | Universidad de Costa Rica |
| Repositorio: | Kérwá |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:kerwa.ucr.ac.cr:10669/77313 |
| Acceso en línea: | http://repositorio.imta.mx/handle/20.500.12013/1684 https://hdl.handle.net/10669/77313 |
| Palabra clave: | Macroinvertebrados acuáticos Monitoreo biológico Calidad de Agua |