AUTHOR=Arana Maestre Jerry , Carrasco Badajoz Carlos , Coayla Peñaloza Pastor , Rayme Chalco Carolina , Sánchez Peña Marco 

TITLE=Aquatic Macroinvertebrates of Arid and Semi-Arid Ecosystems of Peru

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Environmental Science

VOLUME=Volume 9 - 2021

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/environmental-science/articles/10.3389/fenvs.2021.658940

DOI=10.3389/fenvs.2021.658940

ISSN=2296-665X

ABSTRACT=The objective of this work was to review the composition and distribution of aquatic macroinvertebrates in the arid and semi-arid ecosystems of Peru. To this end, we conducted a literature survey; the articles and theses found were reviewed and analyzed. The following keywords were used: macroinvertebrates, macrozoobenthos, bioindicators and water quality; we used the Google Academic search engine, Scopus, Web of Science, ResearchGate  and the thesis repositories of Peruvian universities, additionally a thesis from the University of Barcelona. Of a total of 53 sources of information, 38 are theses and 15 are scientific articles conducted from 1992 to 2020, referring to studies conducted at elevations ranging from 0 to 3831 m asl. Most studies were conducted at the Lima and La Libertad departments, resulting in 20 and 10 publications, respectively. The topics addressed most frequently were bioindication and biodiversity.  Most theses were carried in the Universidad Nacional de Trujillo and the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, with 12 and 10 theses, respectively. The period 2011-2020 records the largest number of publications (40). According to the type of aquatic ecosystem, rivers (38) were the systems most intensively studied, followed by coastal wetlands (14) and lagoons (12); to note, one thesis studied two types of ecosystems. As a result, seven phyla, 10 classes, 39 orders, and 118 families were reported. The highest richness of families corresponds to rivers (110), followed by coastal wetlands (57), and lagoons (24). The western hydrographic slope recorded the highest richness at phylum, class, order, and family levels, likely because most investigations were conducted in this slope. On the other hand, the phyla Cnidaria, Nematoda, and Nematomorpha were not recorded in the eastern slope, which showed fewer orders (19) relative to the western slope (39). A similar trend is observed at the family level: of the 118 families recorded, 59 were reported for the eastern slope. The most common families at both sides were Chironomidae, Baetidae, Simuliidae, Elmidae, Hydrophilidae, Libellulidae, Physidae, Dytiscidae, Ceratopogonidae, Coenagrionidae, Hydroptilidae, Hydropsychidae and Tipulidae. Separately, the most common families in all types of aquatic ecosystems were Chironomidae, Baetidae and Dytiscidae.