Macroinvertebrados discriminam áreas de turismo em um rio cárstico no Brasil?: pré-requisito para uso do grupo em biomonitoramento

Abstract

The biomonitoring and management of visitation areas are limited by our knowledge of the impact of the visiting public on the biodiversity. In this study, we investigate how the macroinvertebrate community is spatially distributed, especially between reference areas and public swimming areas in a karst region river in the second largest tourist destination in Brazil - Bonito, Mato Grosso do Sul. Macroinvertebrates were collected from five public sites and from five reference sites. Our results show that environmental variable values such as organic matter, the number of tree trunks, the water velocity and depth and the number of piraputangas discriminate public areas from reference areas. The aquatic macroinvertebrate community had fewer taxons and exemplars in the public areas. Based on genera, unlike identifications done on the family level, the macroinvertebrate community presents variability between the public areas and the reference areas. The activities of the visiting public in the region of Bonito may not be strong enough to generate environmental gradients that show a difference in the distribution of the macroinvertebrates when using a priori classification between the reference areas and public areas.