Baseline water quality and macrophyte assemblages in Pampean streams: a regional approach.

Streams of the pampas region (central Argentina) are characterized by the lack of riparian forests and by low current velocities, and receive a large amount of industrial and domestic effluents. Intensive agriculture in the region has greatly increased during the last years; nevertheless, regional studies to determine baseline conditions are not available. Here, we characterized pampean streams considering physico-chemical water features and the composition of macrophyte communities, and we established if the regions proposed by an early hydrological regionalization show differentiated water chemistry and macrophyte assemblages.