IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/envman/v32y2003i4d10.1007_s00267-003-3003-9.html

A Preliminary Index of Biotic Integrity for Monitoring the Condition of the Rio Paraiba do Sul, Southeast Brazil

Author

Listed:
  • Francisco Gerson Araujo

    (Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro Km 47., Antiga Rod. Rio-SP. 23851-970 Seropedica. RJ, Laboratório Ecologia de Peixes)

  • Ilana Fichberg

    (Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro Km 47., Antiga Rod. Rio-SP. 23851-970 Seropedica. RJ, Laboratório Ecologia de Peixes)

  • Benjamin Carvalho Teixeira Pinto

    (Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro Km 47., Antiga Rod. Rio-SP. 23851-970 Seropedica. RJ, Laboratório Ecologia de Peixes)

  • Magna Galvao Peixoto

    (Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro Km 47., Antiga Rod. Rio-SP. 23851-970 Seropedica. RJ, Laboratório Ecologia de Peixes)

Abstract

The biodiversity of many Brazilian rivers is seriously threatened by industrial and municipal pollution, and Rio Paraiba do Sul, located between two major industrial centers is one example of this situation. A survey of the fish assemblage was conducted from October 1998 to September 1999 and the data were used to develop an index of biotic integrity (IBI). We sampled three zones in bracketing a large urban–industrial complex to evaluate water quality changes and the usefulness of the IBI as a monitoring tool. Water quality was classified as poor upstream of the effluent discharges, very poor near the discharges, and poor–fair downstream of the discharges, with this latter situation revealing the current biological capacity of the river. Physical and chemical habitat characteristics were also measured at each site to construct an independent environmental index to validate the IBI. The habitat and IBI indices were highly correlated, suggesting this IBI would be applicable to other large rivers in southeast Brazil.

Suggested Citation

  • Francisco Gerson Araujo & Ilana Fichberg & Benjamin Carvalho Teixeira Pinto & Magna Galvao Peixoto, 2003. "A Preliminary Index of Biotic Integrity for Monitoring the Condition of the Rio Paraiba do Sul, Southeast Brazil," Environmental Management, Springer, vol. 32(4), pages 516-526, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:envman:v:32:y:2003:i:4:d:10.1007_s00267-003-3003-9
    DOI: 10.1007/s00267-003-3003-9
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s00267-003-3003-9
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s00267-003-3003-9?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:envman:v:32:y:2003:i:4:d:10.1007_s00267-003-3003-9. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.