Mayflies (Insecta, Ephemeroptera) as indicators of diffuse agricultural pollution

Anthropogenic expansion extensively covers Earth's cultivable surface, increasing pressure on ecosystems and leading to significant biodiversity loss and widespread pollution, particularly impacting freshwater systems. Diffuse agricultural pollution, stemming from agrochemical runoff into river channels, represents a critical threat to aquatic biota. Mayflies (Ephemeroptera), with their sensitive obligately subaquatic immature stages, are excellent bioindicators of water quality. This study investigated how mayfly communities in Northwestern Argentina, a region dominated by sugarcane and citrus cultivation, respond to such diffuse pollution. Our primary objective was to determine if mayfly community characteristics (total abundance, species richness, and assemblage composition) exhibit changes downstream of cultivated areas compared to upstream sections. We collected 277 D-net samples across five rivers, at both upstream and downstream sites relative to cultivation, each two months (over nine visits) during 2009-2010. The impact of agriculture at downstream sites on mayfly abundance and richness is not uniform across all rivers, with significant reductions observed in some rivers, but not others. Non-metric multidimensional scaling and permutational multivariate analysis of variance confirmed significant effects of site, river, and their interaction on community composition. Notably, the difference in composition between upstream and downstream sites was significant. SIMPER analysis identified Baetodes as the primary contributor to upstream-downstream dissimilarities, being more abundant upstream. Indicator species analysis highlighted Haplohyphes baritu, Lachlania sp., and Nanomis galera as indicators of specific upstream conditions, while no species were exclusive indicators of downstream sites, suggesting downstream communities may be a depauperate subset. These findings underscore the context-dependent impact of diffuse agricultural pollution on mayfly communities and their utility as bioindicators.