ABSTRACT

The Sebangau River, which flows west of Palangka Raya City, is one of the main rivers in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. This paper examines the species composition of the macrozoobenthos community as well as water chemistry in the at least 42 genera belonging to 9 families. In the Sebangau River, insects were abundant and dominated by Diptera. The macrozoobenthos community of the Sebangau River Basin was more abundant and diverse in the upstream area. However, the community in the downstream area, especially in canals, was dominated by Chironomidae. Chironomidae was dominant in the Sebangau River system of which the water showed low pH. Lower diversity of the macrozoobenthos in the lower basin of the Sebangau River could be due to the lower amount of organic material contained in the sediment together with the high contamination of sulfuric acid in the lower basin of the river.