An Index of Limnological Conditions for Urban Wetlands of Bogotã¡ City, Colombia
Ecological Indicators 10 (2010) 848–856 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Ecological Indicators journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ecolind An index of limnological conditions for urban wetlands of Bogota´ city, Colombia Gabriel Pinilla * Biology Department, National University of Colombia, Colombia ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Article history: The urban wetlands of Bogota´ are ecosystems of great importance, yet they are deteriorating. The state of Received 20 September 2009 deterioration must be evaluated in order to develop new methods of ecosystem monitoring and Received in revised form 5 January 2010 conservation. Here we describe the development of an index to assess the ecological health of five urban Accepted 17 January 2010 wetlands and one rural wetland from limnological data. The field phase of this study took place in November 2007 (rainy season) and February 2008 (dry season). Physical and chemical variables of the Keywords: wetland ecosystems (temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH, conductivity, hardness, chlorides, ammonia, Urban wetlands nitrites, nitrates, orthophosphates, and biological oxygen demand) were measured and samples of Multi-metric index phytoplankton, periphyton, macroinvertebrates, and aquatic plants (macrophytes) were collected. The Limnological condition Colombia indices developed (biotic indices of communities: BI, and limnological conditions index: LICOI) allow classification of wetlands into three categories: those that have ‘‘acceptable limnological conditions’’ (Meridor, Jaboque and Guaimaral), those with ‘‘regular limnological conditions’’ (Santa Marı´a del Lago, Juan Amarillo) and those with ‘‘poor limnological conditions’’ (Tibanica). None of the environments studied fit a potential fourth category of ‘‘best limnological conditions.’’ The LICOI is a management tool that can be used to assess changes in wetlands after positive actions (restoration, cleaning, hydraulic management), or negative impacts (depletion, alien species, pollution).
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