Abstract

Further objectives were to determine the different patterns of land use and occupation within the microbasin formed by these rivers, and to assess the influence of the quantity of riparian vegetation on the presser/vation of the aquatic ecosystems. The studied basin extends over a total area of 77.75 km², of which 92.98% comprised agriculture (44.11%) and native forest (48.87%). The drainage area of the sampling site P1 was 87.57% covered by crops, and so was 22.30% of the area of the sampling site P4. However, the application of the Tukey test (p < 0.05) to the data for thermotolerant coliforms (also known as faecal coliforms - FC) led to the inference of similarity (p<0.05) between the sampling sites P1 and P4. This indicates that the agriculture impact is probably mitigated by the area of native forest around the source of the spring that feeds P1. From the sampling site P2 to P3, the drainage area showed an improvement in the preservation of natural areas, with the area covered by crops decreasing to 44.41% and an increase of 47.93% in the land covered by native forest. Sampling sites P2 and P3 also showed significant similarity between their annual averages for FC, displaying a reduction in the concentration of these microorganisms from 2.15 to 1.61 (× 10³ MPN/100 mL), which again provided evidence of the positive influence of the recovery of plant cover within the drainage area. Recognising that the other sampling sites with very similar land use characteristics did not display significant alterations in the water quality, the influence of the vegetation and its role as a buffer were made evident, since for these sampling sites most water sources are not bereft of surrounding vegetation. In this way, the lack of correlation (Pearson and Spearman) between the seasonal variations for the assessed water quality parameters allowed us to provide evidence for the positive effect of riparian vegetation in the maintenance of the integrity of aquatic ecosystems and the preservation of the water quality. The water quality comprises physical, chemical, and microbiological parameters related to the different land uses within the river basin.

Key words: Monitoring, total and thermotolerant coliforms, biological indicators, human impact, water quality, multifactorial analysis.