The effect of environmental conditions on the taxonomic and functional structure of benthic macroinvertebrate communities in the Hindu Kush-Himalayan region

• Authors: SYROVÁTKA Vít; BRABEC Karel; KORTE T.; GRAF W.; NESEMANN H.; PETŘIVALSKÁ Karla; HUBER T.; HARTMANN A.; TACHAMO R.D.; SHAH D.N.; ALAM M.S.; HOQUE M.M.; SAHA M.; AZIZ A.; SHARMA S.; CHHOPEL G.K.; TOMANOVÁ Sylvie; KUBOŠOVÁ Klára
• Year of publication: 2008
• Type: Article in Proceedings
• Conference: Proceedings of the Scientific Conference "Rivers in the Hindu Kush-Himalaya – Ecology & Environmental Assessment"
• MU Faculty or unit: Faculty of Science
• Web: http://www.assess-hkh.at/downloads/hkh_proceedings.pdf
• Field: Ecology
• Keywords: river impairment; macroinvertebrates; traits; Hindu Kush-Himalayan region
• Description: The relationships between physico-chemical parameters and the taxonomic and functional structure of benthic macroinvertebrate communities were investigated in streams and rivers of the Hindu Kush-Himalayan region. 190 stream and river reaches distributed along the gradient of eutrophication and water pollution, and located in a wide range of altitude were sampled in two different seasons. Many environmental parameters including the catchments geology, land use, channel morphology and water chemistry were recorded. Family-level identifications of macroinvertebrates were used in statistical analyses. Multivariate statistical methods were used to analyze the large data set. Although the results indicate strong relationship between the macroinvertebrate taxonomic structure and the altitude of the sampling sites, the largest variance in the biological data could be found on the functional-feeding gradient. The differences in the functional structure of the macroinvertebrate communities could be explained by some chemical parameters and eutrophication.