Macroinvertebrate Assemblage Changes as an Indicator of Water Quality of Perennial Endorheic Reed Pans on the Mpumalanga Highveld, South Africa

Abstract

Reed pans are a very uncommon type of endorheic wetland, and as such the amount of information available is very limited. Thus, they are being impacted on by various agricultural, livestock and other anthropogenic activities. The ob- jectives of this study were to determine the spatial and temporal variations of macroinvertebrate community structures in reed pans and the environmental factors (i.e., water quality) responsible for the maintenance of these structures. Reed pans were studied over four different seasons, during which time subsurface water, sediment and macroinvertebrate samples were collected and analyzed. The reed pans studied showed that the macroinvertebrates were able to reflect various changes in reed pans with regard to seasonal variability and anthropogenic impacts on water quality. These an- thropogenic impacts caused the disappearance of sensitive macroinvertebrate taxa and the increase of tolerant macroinvertebrate taxa.