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Assessment of the ecological status of the Oum Er-rabie River basin (Central Morocco) through physicochemical, bacteriological parameters and biotic indices

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Abstract

In this work, the assessment of the ecological status of the Oum Er-rabie River basin was carried out by determining the physical-chemical, bacteriological and biological parameters. sampling Benthic macroinvertebrates and water were collected only once during the fourth seasons at the 31 stations upstream to downstream of the streams from spring 2018 to winter 2019. Physical-chemical quality was assessed from the Weighted Index (IP) based on 16 parameters (temperature, conductivity, dissolved oxygen, nitrate, nitrites, Ammonium, biochemical oxygen demand, chemical oxygen demand, turbidity, ortho phosphate, calcium, magnesium, chloride, sulphate) and revealed an average to very poor quality in most stations. The microbiological quality, based on the assessment of the three parameters: fecal coliforms, total coliforms and fecal streptococcus, varies between, good and bad. The values of the biotic indices, Iberian Biological Monitoring Working Group Index (IBMWP), River Habitat Index (IHF) and River Quality Index (QBR), classify the waters of the various prospected stations as good quality waters for upstream stations (S2, S10, S12, S14, S15, S16) and in the medium to very bad quality category for other localities except for two stations (S27, S30) which are downstream but have good qualities.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the RADEEJ laboratory staff: FADILE Abdelali, MEKDAD Hafida, LOUMRI Siham and SOUROUR Mohamed for their welcome and support during the physical analysis. We would like to thank Pr EL ALAMI Majida, Pr BENNAS Nard, Pr KETTANI Kawtar, Pr DRIAUACH Ouafaa, Dr ERROCHDI Sanae, Dr GUELLAF Achraf and Dr BENAISSA Hassan for hel** in the identification of some families and SIDKY Najib for providing his assistance during the fieldwork.

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  1. LESCB URL-CNRST N°18, FS, Abdelmalek Essaadi University, Tetouan, Morocco

    Abderrahmane Qalmoun, Khadija Bouzrarf & Boutaïna Belqat

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  1. Abderrahmane Qalmoun
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Correspondence to Abderrahmane Qalmoun.

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All specimens were sampled according to the Scientific permit delivered by the Department of Desertification Control and Nature Protection, Rabat, Morocco, under the number: 12/2018.

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Qalmoun, A., Bouzrarf, K. & Belqat, B. Assessment of the ecological status of the Oum Er-rabie River basin (Central Morocco) through physicochemical, bacteriological parameters and biotic indices. Biologia 77, 2533–2547 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11756-022-01128-1

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