Assessing the Quality of Amazon Aquatic Ecosystems with Multiple Lines of Evidence: The Case of the Northeast Andean Foothills of Ecuador

Abstract

We assessed the quality of Andes-Amazonia streams in Ecuador impacted by gold mining (GM), discharges from inefficient sewage network in urban areas (UA), wastes from fish farming (FF) and from non-functional landfill (LF) and other few threats (FT). We selected three lines of evidence (LOE) that were used separately and integrated into a index: water quality (WQI) and macroinvertebrate community (AAMBI) indices and phytotoxicity tests. Streams affected by UA and LF had the lowest scores to WQI and phytotoxicity, and by GM had the lowest scores to AAMBI. Macroinvertebrate absence in GM should be considered as a warning signal of long-term mining impacts in the area. The integrated LOE index showed that sites with identified threats had 30%–53% stream quality decline compared to FT sites. The use of the selected LOE seems to be a useful tools for long-term monitoring and evaluation of this sensitive aquatic ecosystem.