Impact of the anthropogenic activities on the diversity and structure of benthic macroinvertebrates in tropical forest stream

Abstract

The diversity and structure of benthic macroinvertebrates related to some physico-chemical parameters were studied in the Konglo stream, an affluent of the Nyong river in Cameroon. The benthic macroinvertebrates were collected at three stations according to multihabitat the approach and physic-chemical parameters were sampled and analyzed using classic methods between February 2014 and August 2014. During this study, 1969 individuals belonging to 3 phyla, 7 classes, 16 orders, 63 families and more than 90 genera were sampled. The class of Insects, including 9 orders, 54 families and more than 79 genera, predominates with 74.81 % of the relative abundance, followed by the class of Decapods regrouping 21.94 % of the individuals distributed in 1 order, 2 families and 2 genera, however less varied. The other classes (Achaeta, Oligochaeta, Bivalvia, Gastropoda and Arachnida) represent only 3.25 % of relative abundance. The spatial variation of taxonomical richness shows a decrease of the diversity from upstream to downstream as well as the Ephemeroptera-Plecoptera-Trichoptera (EPT) index. Moreover, the Sörensen similarity index indicates dissimilarity between the station K3 and the two others stations. Otherwise, the rank-frequency diagram of Frontier and the Shannon and Weaver index show that the structure of benthic macroinvertebrates is in ecological starting succession in upstream and middle while it is closed to ageing in downstream

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