Abstract

In June 2011 the Puyehue-Cordón Caulle volcanic complex (PCCVC) erupted, ejecting around 950 million metric tons of volcanic ash and pyroclastic rock, generating habitat destruction, environmental deterioration and devastation of ecological communities in rivers near the volcanic fissure. We evaluate the long-term effect of this eruptive event on the recovery of the diversity of aquatic macroinvertebrates, collecting biological and environmental information from 2011 to 2018 in visibly impacted Chilean rivers (Gol-Gol and Nilahue) and not visibly impacted rivers (Calcurrupe and Chanleufu). With the macroinvertebrate records we developed a recovery coefficient based on their diversity before and after the eruption. The results show that before the eruption (2009‐2010), the accumulated family richness and mean diversity in the Gol-Gol River were higher than that observed post-eruption in rivers visibly impacted and not visibly impacted. Between 2013 and 2018, 17 families recolonized the Gol-Gol River, as well as 10 new families that were not recorded before the eruption. The richness of families post-eruption was negatively related to the increase in the concentration of total suspended solids, affecting the successional changes and recovery in the medium term. The recovery coefficient indicates that seven years after the eruption the diversity of macroinvertebrates still shows lower levels than those recorded before the eruptive event, with predominance of a slow recovery phase. Families of orders Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera and Trichoptera that were dominant before the eruption of the PCCVC began to recover the richness of taxa two years later, Plecoptera reaching 50% recolonization in 2018, Ephemeroptera 33.3% and Trichoptera 30%. In contrast, Diptera reached 100% recovery by 2018 and chironomids increased since 2015, becoming the dominant taxon during intermediate recovery in the Gol-Gol River. The recovery of macroinvertebrates in the Gol-Gol River is related to their modes of dispersal, feeding and the decrease in ash concentration.