Campaign #7

On Thursday 09 January, we headed out to the field for the first day of the seventh campaign. By now, the experience of the previous campaigns came in handy to access the selected sampling sites and organise the logistics of the field visits. The rainfall has returned towards more normal levels and has had a clear impact on the water levels in the rivers, while the reservoirs were filling up again. In the end, 54 accessible sites were selected: 31 river/stream sites and 23 reservoir sites.

We collected information on the abiotic conditions in each of the 54 sampling sites. To get this data, we made use of a multiprobe (a device that measures several conditions at once) on-site and USEPA approved test kits to determine the nutrient concentrations off-site. The collection of this data confirmed the patterns of the previous campaigns and are in line with what we expected. For instance, ammonium and nitrite concentrations directly downstream of the city of Cuenca (site CU03, followed by CU02 and PA01) were lower than most of the previous campaigns. It is highly likely that the daily rainfall events (since the end of December) have had a cleaning effect on the rivers, as well as a diluting effect of any incoming wastewaters. Equally interesting is the decreasing nutrient levels in the downstream direction, which shows that the Paute river system is able to recover from a signicant pollution event.

A total of 54 sampling sites were selected and assessed for a variety of water quality parameters. The abiotic conditions showed a clear similarity with the previous campaigns, with clearly higher nutrient levels directly downstream of the city of Cuenca.

More information can be found in the short report on the sixth sampling campaign [link].

We would like to thank K.P. Ramirez Pozo, D.V. Tigre Remache, M.E. Carpio Moreno, and R.M. Perez Sucuzhañay for their help in collecting the samples in the field as well as their subsequent processing in the lab. We also thank D.G. Zuñiga Villegas for providing us with the necessary transport.