**Author details**

Therefore, the calibrated BMWP scores and the proposed water quality classes of this study can be used as a tool for the biomonitoring of water quality in the Apatlaco and Chalma‐ Tembembe rivers and even the subbasins Cuautla, Yautepec and Amacuzac. Furthermore, our ranges for water quality class showed also a good fit for the qualification of study sites and the spectrum of the land use conditions [36]. The studied rivers showed that a great portion of the rivers Apatlaco and Chalma‐Tembembe (nine study sites), with agriculture as the main land use, is qualified as: bad polluted to regular, moderated polluted, while another great portion of the Apatlaco River mainly located in urban zones is qualified as bad, very polluted to very bad. The BMWP calibrated and the water quality assignations resulted to be suitable to assess water categories in the studied rivers. Our results make evident that Apatlaco River needs

The procedure followed in this study, included four steps, resulted to be efficient, reliable, repeatable and suitable for the development of a robust index to assess the water quality for

The tolerance values of the BMWP index developed in this study and their respective water quality classes can be applicable without modification to the adjacent river subbasins of the

The aquatic invertebrates and the BMWP index calibrated proved to be excellent indicators of water quality, being very sensitivity to differentiate the degree of pollution, different land uses and degrees of perturbation and thus, assign a water quality class that is also strongly related

These results make evident that the BMWP index calibrated is a suitable tool for the biomo‐ nitoring in the Neotropical region, where changes in land use have exerted strong impacts on aquatic resources and where the assessment of ecological conditions in freshwater ecosystems is urgently needed in a relatively simple, effective, reliable, fast and economical way. The procedure followed in this study to calibrate the BMWP is recommended and can be extended

We thank to the join Fund of the National Science and Technology Council (CONACyT) and the Morelos Government, Project FOMIX CONACyT 173996, as well as the Research and

Postgraduate Studies Secretariat (SIP Instituto Politécnico Nacional SIP20121087).

Apatlaco River, such as the subbasins Cuautla, Yautepec and Amacuzac.

urgently a management and recovery plan.

rivers in the Neotropical region of México.

with the land use of their surrounding area.

to other Neotropical rivers.

**Acknowledgements**

**5. Conclusions**

54 Water Quality

Ricardo Arturo Ruiz‐Picos1 , Jacinto Elías Sedeño‐Díaz2 and Eugenia López‐López1\*

\*Address all correspondence to: eulopez@ipn.mx

1 National Polytechnic Institute, National School of Biological Science, Laboratory of Aquatic Ecosystem Health Assessment, Laboratorio de Evaluación de la Salud de Ecosistemas Acuáticos, Departamento de Zoología, ENCB, Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Ciudad de México, México

2 Polytechnical Coordination for Sustainability, National Polytechnic Institute, Coordinación Politécnica para la Sustentabilidad, Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Ciudad de México, México
