Abstract

MAGDALENO, Anahí et al. Evaluación del impacto de las actividades rurales en la calidad del agua de la microcuenca del arroyo Burgos (San Pedro, Provincia de Buenos Aires). Rev. Mus. Argent. Cienc. Nat. [online]. 2018, vol.20, n.2, pp.239-250. ISSN 1853-0400.

The Pampas region (Argentina) have suffered profound changes in the agroecosystems as a result of many pollutants generated by agricultural and livestock activities. The objective of this study was to evaluate the water quality of a microbasin belonging to the Burgos stream (San Pedro, Province of Buenos Aires) through the application of water quality indexes (ICAs), faecal contamination indicators and algae bioassays. Three samplings were carried out in 2015 and six sampling sites were selected, four along the tributary stream of order 1, and two in the stream. Two ICAs were used: ICA1, whose variables were temperature, OD and NH4+, and ICA2, whose variables were pH, OD, temperature, nitrates, PRS and faecal coliforms. According to the ICA1, water quality ranged from slight to very high pollution, and according to the ICA2, from regular to dreadful quality. The concentration of faecal indicators microorganisms was similar in all the samples, while significant differences were observed in the concentrations of Salmonella spp. According to the correlation analysis, precipitation would participate in the transport of coliform microorganisms to surface waters through surface runoff processes. On the other hand, the inhibition of algal growth would not be related to glyphosate, whose concentrations were between 0.35 and 13.57 μg/L. The results suggest that the application of different indicators could be a very useful tool to evaluate the environmental quality of surface waters from the Pampas plain, in particular the use of indexes including coliform microorganisms in the calculation equation.

Keywords : Agroecosystems; Water Quality Indices; Enterococci; Faecal coliforms; Salmonella spp; Algal bioassays.