Evaluación de la calidad ecológica de Caño Seco- Restrepo (Meta), mediante los indices de hábitat fluvial (IHF) y calidad de bosque de ribera (QBR). Universidad Santo Tomas, Villavicencio, Colombia.

Abstract

Study was carried out that allows an approximation to the ecological quality of the Caño Seco in the municipality of Restrepo in the dry season, through fluvial habitat indexes (IHF) and riparian forest quality (QBR). Four samplings were conducted between February 2019 and May 2019, in three different sites of the riverline, which consisted in the evaluation of the indices and record of the physicochemical parameters (pH, O2, temperature, conductivity, depth) for a total of 4 of evaluations of each one of the indexes, and 72 repetitions of the physicochemical parameters, where they also took data of the plant species. The river habitat quality and riparian vegetation were evaluated by means, the vegetation coverege and the composition of substrates in the hydric ecosystem, were correlated using the Spearman coefficient with the physicochemical parameters. Each station with a length of 150 meters, were separated approximately by one kilometer, with riparian vegetation on both sides of the pipe, where the station upstream of the municipality presented slight alterations indicating good ecological quality with high heterogeneity of habitat, while the stations in the middle and downstream of the municipality presented a high degree of alteration anthropic with riparian vegetation reduced or absent in the margins, with predominance of anthropic activities and discharges of wastewater, which indicates a lower ecological quality.