Hydrobiological and physicochemical characterization of the Mancilla reservoir wetland, Facatativá, Colombia

Abstract

Water is a resource of great importance for the development of different human activities. In Facatativá, the Mancilla Reservoir stores 300,000 m³ of raw water for the supply of the municipality. The purpose of this research was to determine the hydrobiological and physicochemical status of the Mancilla Reservoir wetland. Two stations were identified in the reservoir for the collection of water samples at surface level and at depth in the season of high and low rainfall. Eleven characteristics were measured in situ: conductivity, pH, temperature, turbidity, photic zone depth, transparency, alkalinity, calcium and total hardness, chlorides, dissolved oxygen, and carbonaceous acidity. The presence-absence of phytoplankton and zooplankton species and their relationship with physicochemical characteristics were also defined. The water of the Mancilla Reservoir presents little variation in terms of each of the characteristics analyzed, indicating that this body of water has an orthograde oxygen profile, is classified as oligotrophic, with low primary productivity, low nutrient content and in general it is considered that the water of the Mancilla Reservoir is suitable for purification processes. 18 species of plankton microorganisms were identified, the most abundant were Ceratium sp., Bosmina sp., Mycrocyclops sp. and Tabellaria flocculosa. The main bioindicators of the Mancilla Reservoir are considered to be Daphnia sp., Pinnularia viridis, Staurastrum sp., and Spirogyra sp.