Assessing the ecological impact of banana farms on water quality using aquatic macroinvertebrate community composition
Assessing the ecological impact of banana farms on water quality using aquatic macroinvertebrate community composition
Ola Svensson 0 1 2 3 4
Angelina Sanderson Bellamy 0 1 2 3 4
Paul J. Van den Brink 0 1 2 3 4
Michael Tedengren 0 1 2 3 4
Jonas S. Gunnarsson 0 1 2 3 4
0 Sustainable Places Research Institute, Cardiff University , 33 Park Place, Cardiff CF10 3BA , UK
1 Department of Ecology, Environment and Plant Sciences (DEEP), Stockholm University , S-10961 Stockholm, SE , Sweden
2 Responsible editor: Thomas Hein
3 Alterra, Wageningen University and Research , P.O. Box 47, 6700 AA Wageningen, Wageningen , The Netherlands
4 Department of Aquatic Ecology and Water Quality Management, Wageningen University , P.O. Box 47, 6700 AA Wageningen, Wageningen , The Netherlands
In Costa Rica, considerable effort goes to conservation and protection of biodiversity, while at the same time agricultural pesticide use is among the highest in the world. Several protected areas, some being wetlands or marine reserves, are situated downstream large-scale banana farms, with an average of 57 pesticide applications per year. The banana industry is increasingly aware of the need to reduce their negative environmental impact, but few ecological field studies have been made to evaluate the efficiency of proposed mitigation strategies. This study compared the composition of benthic macroinvertebrate communities up- and downstream effluent water from banana farms in order to assess whether benthic invertebrate community structure can be used to detect environmental impact of banana farming, and thereby usable to assess improvements in management practises. Aquatic invertebrate samples were collected at 13 sites, using kick-net sampling, both up- and downstream banana farms in fast
Costa Rica; Banana production; Benthic macroinvertebrates; Water quality; Monitoring; Risk assessment
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flowing streams in the Caribbean zone of Costa Rica. In total,
2888 invertebrate specimens were collected, belonging to 15
orders and 48 families or taxa. The change in community
composition was analysed using multivariate statistics.
Additionally, a biodiversity index and the Biological
Monitoring Working Party (BMWP) score system was
applied along with a number of community composition
descriptors. Multivariate analyses indicated that surface waters
immediately up- and downstream large-scale banana farms have
different macroinvertebrate community compositions with the
most evident differences being higher dominance by a single
taxa and a much higher total abundance, mostly of that same
taxon. Assessment of macroinvertebrate community
composition thus appears to be a viable approach to detect negative
impact from chemical-intensive agriculture and could become
an effective means to monitor the efficacy of changes/
proposed improvements in farming practises in Costa Rica
and similar systems.
Costa Rica is one of the richest countries in the world in terms
of biodiversity and considerable effort goes to conservation
and protection. Several protected areas, some being wetlands
or marine reserves, are however, situated downstream
agricultural areas, where the use of agrochemicals is very high
(Schreinemachers and Tipraqsa 2012) and run-off into nearby
surface waters is of particular concern (Castillo et al. 2006). A
major contributor of agrochemicals to the surrounding
environment is the large-scale banana production, which receives
an average of 57.5 pesticide applications per year as well as
2775 kg/ha of synthetic fertilizers (Bellamy 2013; Bravo et al.
2013). Several of the pesticides used in banana production
have been detected in the aquatic environment downstream
of banana production areas (Castillo et al. 2006), some in
concentrations expected to have acute or chronic toxic effects
on aquatic organisms according to toxicity values derived
from laboratory toxicity tests (Diepens et al. 2014;
AriasAndrés et al. 2016; Rämö et al. 2016).
Banana companies are today increasingly aware of the
need to reduce their negative environmental impact, and
several changes in management practises have resulted in some
companies being certified according to one of several
certification systems (e.g. Rainforest Alliance and ISO14000).
Attempts to reduce environmental impact by farms include
the following: sediment traps that are constructed to reduce
erosion and capture/retain pesticides adhered to solids;
riparian vegetation zones that are planted/left to intercept spray
drift, prevent erosion and reduce surface flow and leaching
of pesticides; manual chopping of weeds instead of using
herbicides; manual injections of nematicides into the banana
plant instead of applying soil granular nematicides; and
postharvest applications of fungicides using brushes instead of
fumigation chambers, thereby reducing the amount of
pesticides used.
Some of these practises may reduce the negative impact on
the environment, but few ecological field studies have been
done to evalu (...truncated)