Variations in Benthic Macroinvertebrate Communities and Biological Quality in the Aguarico and Coca River Basins in the Ecuadorian Amazon

Adequate environmental management in tropical aquatic ecosystems is imperative. Given the lack of knowledge about functional diversity and bioassessment programs, missing needed evidence on pollution its effect biodiversity ecology. Therefore, we investigated composition distribution macroinvertebrate community along two rivers. Specifically, 15 locations were sampled Coca Aguarico Rivers (Ecuadorian Amazon) macroinvertebrates used to indicate water quality (WQ), expressed as Biological Monitoring Working Party Colombia (BMWP-Col) classes. Results that elevation, pH, temperature, width, depth played an important role taxa feeding groups (FFG) composition. The results show FFG generally scarce but more abundant good sites. Collector-gathers (CG) were, general, dominant particularly at low WQ downstream Scrapers (SC) second most group, dominating mostly upstream Predators (PR) homogeneously distributed among sites, without clear dominance, their abundance was slightly higher sites with medium-low Lastly, both shredders (SH) collector-filterers (CF) almost absent findings this research can be baseline information studied region since a dam constructed years after sampling campaign, which has been operating since. Furthermore, fill gaps related bioassessments other similar systems, for rainforest.