Portoviejo river

Macroinvertebrate functional feeding group structure along an impacted tropical river: The Portoviejo River (Ecuador)
November 2018
Performing biological assessments of freshwater systems is crucial in most tropical rivers as the lack of in-depth knowledge about functional diversity inhibits the design of appropriate water management and restoration plans. Therefore, in this paper, the presence and evolution of the functional diversity of the macroinvertebrate community along a tropical river was investigated. It was discovered that the interaction of upstream disturbances and local land use influenced the community composition further downstream. These interactions and the confirmation of the importance of land use on aquatic communities underline the fact that management should include both taxonomic and functional diversity.

Water quality related macroinvertebrate community responses to environmental gradients in the Portoviejo River (Ecuador)
May 2017
The Portoviejo River, located in the central western part of Ecuador, has been heavily impacted by damming, intensive agriculture and untreated wastewater discharge. The aims of this study were (1) to assess the ecological water quality, (2) to investigate the point along the environmental gradient where the most significant change in macroinvertebrate community occurs and (3) to find potential macroinvertebrate taxa that significantly change in abundance and frequency of occurrence along the Portoviejo River. The results showed that the ecological water quality of the sampling sites ranged from good to bad. To conclude, this study suggests that values of conductivity and nitrate-nitrogen concentrations should not exceed the threshold levels in order to protect macroinvertebrate biodiversity in the Portoviejo River.