Effect of the Riparian Vegetation on the Phytoperiphyton of Wetlands in the Colombian Orinoquía

• Published in: OXÍMORA Revista Internacional de Ética y Política
• Main Authors: Lozano, Solanlly, Vasquez, Camila, Rivera Rondón, Carlos Alberto, Zapata, Angela, ORTIZ MORENO, MARTHA LUCIA
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: Spanish
• Published: Universidad Nacional de Colombia - Sede Bogotá - Facultad de Ciencias - Departamento de Biología 2019
• Subjects: Forests; deforestation; microalgae; riparian vegetation; Ecology; Bosques; deforestación; microalgas; vegetación riparia; Ecología; Arctic
• Online Access: https://revistas.unal.edu.co/index.php/actabiol/article/view/69086

Riparian vegetation is essential for the functioning of aquatic ecosystems by providing organic matter. Given that periphyton plays an indispensable role in the dynamics of these ecosystems and there are few works on its ecology in the Neotropic our research question was: How does the riparian vegetation cover affect the structure of the phytoperiphyton in wetlands of the Orinoquía? In November 2016, we sampled 15 wetlands covered by forest and 15 wetlands covered by herbaceous vegetation in the riparian zone. The wetlands are located in the peri-urban area of Villavicencio, Meta (Colombia). The algal diversity between coverage types was compared and Redundancy Analyses were carried out to determine which environmental variables explain the phytoperiphyton composition. 467 morphotypes of microalgae were found, 36.2 % belonged to the Zygnematophyceae Class, 35.3 % to Bacillariophyceae, and 16 % to Chlorophyceae. 165 morpho-species of diatom distributed in 30 genera were found. Eunotia and Pinnularia were the most representative. The multivariate analyzes indicate that the composition of diatoms was related to the littoral vegetation coverage and the total organic carbon. The rest of the phytoperifiton was explained by temperature and conductivity. Linear regression models showed that the diversity of diatoms was explained by the number of substrates, temporality and the type of riparian coverage. We conclude that in anthropogenic wetlands of the Colombian Orinoquía, the type of riparian vegetation affects the composition and diversity of diatoms. La vegetación riparia es primordial para el funcionamiento de los ecosistemas acuáticos al aportar materia orgánica. Dado que el perifiton juega un rol indispensable en la dinámica de estos ecosistemas y existen pocos trabajos sobre su ecología en el Neotrópico, se planteó la pregunta: ¿Cómo afecta el tipo de cobertura vegetal de la zona riparia, la estructura del fitoperifiton de humedales de la Orinoquía? En noviembre de 2016 se estudiaron 15 humedales con cobertura ...