Assessment of pollution impacts on the ecological integrity of the Kisian and Kisat rivers in Lake Victoria drainage basin, Kenya

Macro-invertebrate assemblages were used as bioindicators to assess the ecological integrity of Rivers Kisat (influenced by urban development) and Kisian (influenced by agriculture) using community attributes and the Index of Biotic Integrity. Six stations, three per river, were selected to correspond to different impact types and intensities along the rivers. Physico-chemical parameters and nutrients were determined for each station on a monthly basis from November 2007 to April 2008. Two-way analysis of variance was used to compare water quality and nutrient parameters, and macro invertebrate community attributes between the two rivers, with the river and station as the main factors. Significant differences were accepted at 95% confidence level. There were inconsistencies in the variation of physico-chemical parameters along the two rivers. However, River Kisat recorded higher values for all physico-chemical parameters considered, except pH and DO. Different indices and metrics representing the structural and functional organization of macro invertebrates were computed and evaluated for responsiveness to physico-chemical parameters and nutrient levels. Macro invertebrate diversity, richness and evenness values failed to delineate stations according to the different levels of degradation they were experiencing. However, the differences were captured by the index of biotic integrity, which separated stations into different classes of quality. River Kisat stations in urban areas scored lowest index values, less than 15 out of 25, while two river Kisian stations scored the highest value, more than 19. The index provided evidence of response to changes in ecosystem integrity exhibited by resident macro invertebrate assemblages to pollution arising from both point and nonpoint sources.Key words: Urban rivers, water quality, physico-chemical parameters, macro invertebrates

Challenges Using Extrapolated Family-level Macroinvertebrate Metrics in Moderately Disturbed Tropical Streams: a Case-study From Belize

Family-level biotic metrics were originally designed to rapidly assess gross organic pollution effects, but came to be regarded as general measures of stream degradation. Improvements in water quality in developed countries have reignited debate about the limitations of family-level taxonomy to detect subtle change, and is resulting in a shift back towards generic and species-level analysis to assess smaller effects. Although the scale of pollution characterizing past condition of streams in developed countries persists in many developing regions, some areas are still considered to be only moderately disturbed. We sampled streams in Belize to investigate the ability of family-level macroinvertebrate metrics to detect change in stream catchments where less than 30% of forest had been cleared. Where disturbance did not co-vary with natural gradients of change, and in areas characterized by low intensity activities, none of the metrics tested detected significant change, despite evidence of environmental impacts. We highlight the need for further research to clarify the response of metrics to disturbance over a broader study area that allows replication for confounding sources of natural variation. We also recommend research to develop more detailed understanding of the taxonomy and ecology of Neotropical macroinvertebrates to improve the robustness of metric use