Quality of water in Ribeira Pontido

AquaProject/ProjetoAgua

Water quality in Ribeira do Pontido, Póvoa de Lanhoso

Using macroinvertebrates as

bioindicators

Involved students :

11A, 11C, 12A, 12B, P29

School year 2013 / 2014


Why is it so important a WATER study?

• … without WATER there’s no life.

• … FRESH WATER distribution on the planet is asymmetric.

• … the humankind doesn’t always give the importance needed to this precious resource.

• … to remember how essential european rules are for water preservation.

–European Water Charter


Why is it so important a WATER study?

• WaterMark (Comenius & eTwinning)

&

• AquaProject / ProjetoAgua (Ordem dos Biólogos &

Ciência Viva)


The projects…

• Several activities were developed: • Research papers

• Videos

• Interviews

• Posters

• Photos

• Fieldwork

• Lab work…

• Now we are going to present you one of our works


Investigation problem…

What’s the water quality in Ribeira Pontido?

© Hugo Oliveira, 11ºA, 11/12/2014


Study objectives

Objectives were defined related with…

– Water quality assessment…

• Get to know the water quality of Ribeira Pontido.

• Use of macroinvertebrates as bioindicators.

– Field and experimental work

– Data processing

– Discussion and dissemination of results


Study area characterization

• Urban Park in Póvoa de Lanhoso center, crossed by the Ribeira do Pontido (hydrographic network of Rio Ave).

• Vegetation: grass, bushes and small trees.

• Maintenance: Town Hall.

• It has equipment for sports practice.


Materials and methods… Field

In YOUTUBE >>>>>>

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEYjG8VCnig

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEYjG8VCnig


Materials and methods… Field

• 1 local sample

• 2 samples (dez2013/mar2014)

• Net to scrape the edges.

• Contents dumped into trays.

• The macroinvertebrates were placed bottles with water from the Ribeira.

• Measurement of the pH and temperature with a water sensor.


Materials and methods … Lab

• Observation of the macroinvertebrates with a magnifying glass.

• Classification of the living beings based on a grid made by Porto University teachers.

• Counting the macroinvertebrates observed and classified.



Type 1- organisms very intolerant to pollution



Type 2- organisms moderately intolerant to pollution



Type 3 -organisms moderately tolerant to pollution

Type 4-organisms very tolerant to pollution


Pictures in Lab…

Fotos de: Hugo Oliveira, José Pedro Gonçalves & José Braga


Macroinvertebrates… Lab

Larvas de Tricópteros

Larvas de efemerópteros


Macroinvertebrates… Lab

Larvas de Díptero Família Athericidae

Larvas de Odonatas


Os macroinvertebrados… Lab

Larvas de Dípteros Família Simuliidae

Minhocas

Coleóptero


Obtained data… Lab


Obtained data … Lab


Obtained data … Lab

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

Grupo 1 Grupo 2 Grupo 3 Grupo 4 Total

Nº

Macroinvertebrados

Comparação entre o nº de macroinvertebrados recolhidos

11-12-2013

10-03-2014


Discussion… Lab

The water quality has changed : - Excelent in December - Reasonable in March

Possible reasons are: - The amount of nutrients increased due to organic matter decomposition. - Sampling errors. - Classification difficulties.


Conclusions

• In most water quality studies are used physico-chemical parameters.

• If there are occasional disturbances in the water quality, these

will affect the results and because of that, we can’t effectively characterize the quality of water.

• This study attempts to show the importance of macroinvertebrates in the determination of water quality.


Conclusions

• The macroinvertebrates life cycle duration , their needs for

nutrients, oxygen, ... make it possible that the biological assessment allow the detection of pollutants, increased organic matter decomposition, ...

• The water quality evaluation should consider the set of physical, chemical and biological parameters.


THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION!

WaterMark Project – Portuguese Team

Quality of water in Ribeira Pontido

Education

Transcript of Quality of water in Ribeira Pontido