Landscape components associated to forestry in the Atlantic rainforest influence the aquatic macroinvertebrate community: a case study in southern Brazil

Abstract

Several studies indicate that negative impacts on water quality are minimally related to forestry. We analyzed the water quality of a stream in a silvicultural region in southern Brazil, considering the relationship between the components of the landscape and biotic quality indexes, merging physical and biological descriptions of the macroinvertebrate community and environment. We selected three points in Faxinalzinho stream to collect macroinvertebrate samples and to perform perceptual analysis from September to December/2014, applying the Biological Monitoring Working Party (BMWP') and the Rapid Assessment Protocol for Habitat Diversity (RAPHD). Diversity metrics and a Non-metric Multidimensional Scaling (NMDS) were also applied to explore variations in the aquatic community abundance matrix, associating the data to Land Use/Land Cover. The results showed good water quality in the studied points, mainly when compared to urban rivers. However, we found negative effects in the site with higher forestry land cover, presenting acceptable water quality and altered environmental condition according to BMWP’ and RAPHD, while the other sites presented excellent water quality and natural environment, respectively.