Paute river basin

Multivariate-statistics based selection of a benthic macroinvertebrate index for assessing water quality in the Paute River basin (Ecuador)
April 2020
Multivariate statistics -Soft Independent Modelling of Class Analogies (SIMCA), Principal Components Analysis (PCA), Multiple Regression (MR)- were used to search for key biotic and water quality (WQ) variables within a dataset/matrix collected over a five-year period in the Paute River Basin (Ecuador). The results showed that the Elmidae-Plecoptera-Trichoptera (ElmPT) index was the most accurate biotic classifier. The reduction of the field monitored parameters could help designing more cost-effective but equally accurate future WQ monitoring schemes in the basin.