Diversity of aquatic macroinvertebrates in relationship with the environmental factors of a lotic ecosystem in tropical region: the Sô river in South-East of Benin (West Africa)
International audienceThe present study was aimed to study the diversity of aquatic macroinvertebrate populations in relation to the abiotic parameters of the Sô River. For this purpose, aquatic macroinvertebrates were sampled monthly between February 2016 and April 2017 on 12 sampling stations and in various habitats along the Sô River. Similarly, twenty environmental variables were measured to assess the environmental characteristics of Sô river. The recorded fauna consists of 2053 individuals corresponding to 44 families and 61 taxa belonging to three main zoological groups (Arthropods, Molluscs, Annelids). The stand population showed that Coleoptera (17.06%), Basomatophora (14.19%), Heteroptera (11.37%), Odonata (10.26%), Mesogasteropoda (9.01%) and Decapoda (9%) are the most abundant orders. Another oders constitute only a small fraction of the total fauna harvested. The redundancy analysis performed shows that abiotic parameters that strongly influence taxonomic diversity and taxon abundance are: current velocity, nitrogen and phosphorus compounds, mineralization parameters and canopy
