**Macroinvertebrates and Fishes as Bioindicators of Stream Water Pollution Macroinvertebrates and Fishes as Bioindicators of Stream Water Pollution**

Pablo Fierro, Claudio Valdovinos, Luis Vargas-Chacoff, Carlos Bertrán and Ivan Arismendi Luis Vargas-Chacoff, Carlos Bertrán and Ivan Arismendi

Pablo Fierro, Claudio Valdovinos,

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/65084

### **Abstract**

[39] Dallas, H.F. (2007) River health programme: South African scoring system (SASS) data interpretation guidelines. Institute of Natural Resources and Department of Water Affairs and Forestry, Pretoria, South Africa. Available online: http://safrass.com/reports/SASS%

[40] APHA—(American Public Health Association) (1992) Standard methods for the exami-

[41] Bilotta, G.S., and Brazier, R.E. (2008) Understanding the influence of suspended solids on

[42] Dallas, H.F. (2007) The influence of biotope availability on macroinvertebrate assemblages in South African rivers: implications for aquatic bioassessment. Freshwater Biology

nation of water and waste water (18th edn). APHA, Washington DC, USA.

20Interpretation%20Guidelines.pdf Accessed: 18 October, 2010.

water quality and aquatic biota. Water Research 42: 2849–2861.

52:370–380.

22 Water Quality

Freshwater ecosystems worldwide have been progressively deteriorated during the past decades due to an increasing human pressure that has lead to a decrease in aquatic biodiversity. Among the human activities of high impact on freshwater ecosystems is the land-use change, principally from native forests to agriculture. To evaluate the impacts of human activities on water quality, a traditional approach has considered the use of single physical-chemical parameters. However, this approach may be insufficient to fully assess the impact of these human activities on freshwaters. Therefore, there is a need for alternative tools such as the indices of biotic integrity that may provide a complement to traditional approaches. In the literature, there are several examples of biotic indicators that have shown promising results in evaluating water quality including the use of macroinvertebrates and fish diets. Here, we provide a review of the indicators of biotic integrity that included fish assemblages as well as macroinvertebrates as bioindicators. We identify pros and cons of using aquatic communities as indicators of water quality. Finally, we develop a procedure that combines fish and macroinvertebrate assemblages as bioindicators and discuss their effectiveness using illustrative examples from streams under several agricultural uses in the Mediterranean region of Chile.

**Keywords:** biological monitoring, biotic index, macroinvertebrates, fishes, Mediterranean, Chile

Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. © 2017 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

© 2017 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons
