Resumen de Ecological quality of the marine environment within Esmeraldas city´s vicinity (ecuador)
The contamination of the water have an impact in the ecosystems, producing several changes in the communities and organisms. The study of these organisms as bioindicators can provide information about the quality of the water. In this study we analyse the marine environment in the surroundings of Esmeraldas city (Ecuador), that is influenced by Esmeraldas river, harbour and fishery activities and one oil terminal. The study was carried out between May and June of 2016. Marine sediments were taken in nine different points and one point of control. These sediments were extracted for the analysis of benthonic macroinvertebrates, which were identified and counted. We calculated the biotic index and we determined the ecological quality of the water using AMBI “AZTI Marine Biotic Index” software. We found a high number of species within the sampling area. The dominance of species which tolerate a moderate pollution in the environment in the Station 5, the Commercial Port, the PAPES and the mouth of the Esmeraldas River increase the biotic index. This suggests that the quality of the water is worse than in the rest of the sampling points. However, we haven´t found species that tolerate high pollution levels and there aren´t sampling points where the biotic index indicate a moderate pollution level of the water. Given the fact that our samples were from a tropical system and that the oil structures seemed to have a positive effect of on biodiversity, the results that we observed were better than those initially expected.
