Name: Mark Anthony T.

Pitogo
Subject: Advanced Field Ecology
Year & Section: 1A/MAED-GEN.SCI

Critique Assignment 1:

Vivian C. Peligro, Joycelyn C. Jumawan “Aquatic macroinvertebrates diversity and Riparian Channel and
Environmental Inventory in Gibong River, Philippines”, Journal of Entomology and Zoology Studies 2015;
3(5): 398-405

Parts of the DISCUSSION

publishable journal

ABSTRACT It is evident from the abstract that the researchers discussed an important topic
about the diversity of aquatic macroinvertibrates and its implications towards the water
quality of Gibong River, Philippines. They determined selected physiochemical parameters
to support the presence of bioindicator macroinvertebrates species. The researchers were
collected a total of 18 macroinvertebrate species mostly arthropods (87%) and molluscs
(13%). They were three sampling stations namely: Gibong upsteam, Gibong midstream and
Gibong downstream. The Riparian, Channel Environmental (RCE) score for the three
locations garnered “fair” to “very good” ratings.

INTRODUCTION Within the introduction section, in the first sentence “the International Decade for
Action “Water for Life” 2005-2015, freshwater biodiversity is the overriding conservation
priority.” (p.398). The researchers emphasized that the biological diversity in freshwater
plays a vital role as the basis for nature protection. And it also stated on this part that aside
from using macroinvertibrates as the bioindicator, the use of physical and chemical
limnology would also determine the quality of the water. Using the Riparian, Channel and
Environmental (RCE) Inventory would further evaluate the physical and biological
condition of small streams within a particular landscape.

MATERIALS AND It is stated here that a global positioning systems (GPS) was used to determine the
METHODS exact location of sampling sites with corresponding coordinates and its elevation. For the
RCE Inventory the generated numerical score was used to compare the physical and
biological condition of different freshwater bodies studied. The scoring reference for RCE
was done from class score 1- Excellent, 2- Very good, 3-Good, 4- Fair, 5- Poor. For the
water quality assessment for determining some physic-chemical parameters from 1.
Conductivity, 2. pH, 3. Temperature,4. Total Dissolved Solid (TDS) 5. Dissolved Oxygen
(DO). The sampling followed the Reach- wide benthos (Multihabitat) procedure of SWAMP
with some modifications. The collected samples were identified up to the practical level,
generally genus and species with the aid of LASEZ (Leica Application Suite) ver.1.7.0. The
macroinvertibrates were group into 3 Taxa- Taxa 1,2 &3 based on their sensitivity or
tolerance to pollution or aquatic disturbance. For the measuring water quality using water
quality index(WQI) the score 7.6-10 – very clean water, 5.1-7.5-Rather clean-clean water,
2.6-5.0- Rather dirty-water average, 1.0-2.5- Dirty water and 0 it means Very dirty water
(no life at all). While for the Measuring Water Quality Using Average Score per
Taxon(ASPT) the highest score is 5 and above the indication is Excellent, 4-4.5-good, 3-3.5-
 moderate, 2-2.5- Poor, and the 1-1.5 the indication is very poor. And for the analyses the
researchers determined namely Abundance, Evenness, Richness and Shannon-Weiner
Index by using the Paleontological Statistics Software(PAST).

RESULTS AND Based on the scoring reference for RCE, station 1 garnered a score of 265 and rated
DISCUSSION “very good” mainly because its vegetation is still intact. Station 2 and 3 were rated “fair”
with the scores of 89 and 114 respectively, basically because of its less dense vegetation.
For the physicochemical parameters assessment of the upstream were within its
acceptable limits and for the midstream and downstream stations, the value for dissolved
oxygen is 3.16 and 4.18 respectively. The researchers also used Bray-Curtis similarity and
Principal Component analyses. And for the diversity of Macroinvertibrates WQI scores was
used.

CONCLUSION This journal focused in

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