LIMNOLOGICAL SURVEY AND HEMEROBY OF AN URBAN MICRO-WATERSHED

The loss of a landscape nature has been contributing to change limnological variables values of inland water bodies as well as the integrity of ecosystems in watersheds. The conduct of limnological analyzes allied to land use and coverage provide useful information for environmental planning and decision-making on watershed management. In light of the above, the study aimed to conduct a limnological survey, check the main land uses and the degree of hemerobics on the Santa Maria do Leme watershed, in the State of Sao Paulo. To this end, we conducted six sample campaigns for measuring limnological variables in 2020 and it has identified the main land uses and land cover with the framing of classes found in different degrees of hemerobia, reflecting thus the naturalness of the landscape. Seasonality and runoff influence on the limnological variables was verified due to the formation of different groups in the Principal Component Analysis scatterplot. Urbanized areas (30.47%) and temporary farming (25.16%) predominate in the micro-basin, areas with native vegetation correspond to 15.41% of the territory and concentrate on areas of permanent preservation. The landscape is marked by a high degree of artificiality (84,34%) and anthropogenic interference, a situation noted by the degrees of hemerobia (mesohemerobiotic, eumerobiotic, polyhemerobiotic and metahemerobiotic areas). Despite having high anthropogenic dependence, the existing natural elements are of great importance for maintaining water bodies and environmental features.