Benthic macroinvertebrates and physicochemical variables of streams in the guli river national Wetland Park, Greater Khingan Mountains, Northeast China

Abstract

This preliminary study aimed to identify benthic macroinvertebrates, and test the relationships of macroinvertebrate functional feeding groups (FFGs) and environmental parameters in the stream environments of the Guli River National Wetland Park. We used square-frame net to collect benthic macroinvertebrate populations and multi-parameter probe to measure water temperature, conductivity, pH, chlorine, turbidity, ammonium, nitrate and chlorophyll a in situ. We analyzed total nitrogen and total phosphorus in the lab following American Public Health Association (APHA) protocols. We used the canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) to test the correlations of stream community FFGs with physicochemical variables. We caught a total of 64 macroinvertebrate species and measured ten environmental variables at eight sites in both seasons (summer and autumn). Among macroinvertebrates, we identified more insects (50 species) in both seasons. Benthic macroinvertebrate abundance (p = 0.6966), taxa richness (p = 0.1122), Shannon diversity (Hʹ, p = 0.0762) and Pileou's evenness (Jʹ, p = 0.7922) were similar at all sites between two seasons. Water temperature, chlorine, NH4+, NO3–, turbidity, TN and TP were high during summer, while chlorophyll a, conductivity and pH increased during autumn. Our CCA results showed that the metrics of abundance of gathering-collectors had significant relationships with total phosphorus, total nitrogen, nitrate and conductivity. The findings also shed light on predators, shredders and filter-collectors and their positive correlations with pH, turbidity, ammonium, chlorine and chlorophyll a in stream environments.