Assessment of the Ecological Integrity of Aquatic Ecosystems Using Benthic Macroinvertebrates
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21301689Keywords:
Benthic macroinvertebrates, Biomonitoring, Ecological integrity, Aquatic ecosystems, BioindicatorsAbstract
Aquatic ecosystems perform essential ecological functions but have been increasingly degraded by human activities, making the development of efficient environmental monitoring tools indispensable. In this context, the present study aimed to analyze the use of benthic macroinvertebrates in assessing the ecological integrity of aquatic ecosystems, emphasizing their ecological foundations, the main biomonitoring methodologies, applications, and challenges. This research is characterized as a qualitative literature review based on scientific publications indexed in the Web of Science, Scopus, SciELO, and Google Scholar databases. The findings indicate that benthic macroinvertebrates exhibit high sensitivity to environmental disturbances, reflecting the cumulative effects of organic pollution, chemical contamination, habitat degradation, land-use changes, and climate change. The review also highlights significant advances in biomonitoring methodologies, including biotic indices, multimetric indices, functional feeding groups, and molecular tools such as DNA Barcoding and DNA Metabarcoding. It is concluded that benthic macroinvertebrates are reliable bioindicators of ecological integrity, providing essential information for environmental monitoring programs, biodiversity conservation, sustainable water resource management, and the development of public policies aimed at protecting and restoring aquatic ecosystems.
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