Diversity of the aquatic macroinvertebrates community in the Juan López River, Atlántida (Honduras) during the dry season

Abstract

During the dry season of 2016, on the Juan López River in El Porvenir (Atlántida), the diversity of the benthic macroinvertebrate community in a transect of the lower basin was evaluated using ecological indexes, some physicochemical parameters and the composition of the substrate in the sediment of the river. Composite sediment samples were extracted at 5 sites with the help of a dredge and quantified and identified. A total of 9.457 ind.m-2 belonging to the macroinvertebrate community distributed in 4 phylum, 9 classes, 19 orders and 27 families were found. The site of the river closest to the coastal zone had the highest density of organisms in all taxonomic categories. The phylum arthropoda represented 75.94 % relative abundance, the insecta class 34.46 % relative abundance, diptera order with 34.30 % relative abundance and the Chironomidae family with 35.35 %. The content of fine particles in the sediment is generally high, and the textures that predominate in the sediment sections evaluated were between silt and silt, probably due to erosion and sedimentation processes in the basin caused by agri- cultural activity. The organisms identified with the greatest presence are the most resistant and oppor- tunistic to these processes. In sites with lower organic matter content and higher fine particle content they had smaller differences in diversity (H') and maximum diversity (Hmax).