Comparison of Fish, Macroinvertebrates and Diatom Communities in Response to Environmental Variation in the Wei River Basin, China

Abstract

Land use changes usually lead to the deterioration of freshwater ecosystems and reduced biodiversity. Aquatic organisms are considered valuable indicators for reflecting the conditions of freshwater ecosystems. Understanding the relationship between organisms and land use type, as well as physiochemical conditions, is beneficial for the management, monitoring and restoration of aquatic ecosystems. In this study, fish, macroinvertebrates, and diatoms were investigated at 60 sampling sites in the Wei River basin from October 2012 to April 2013 to determine the relationships between the environment and aquatic organisms. The richness, abundance, Shannon diversity, evenness, Margalef diversity, and Simpson diversity were selected as biological indices for analyzing the correlation between these communities and environmental variables according to Pearson’s coefficient. Canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) was used to analyze the relationship between the biotic communities and environmental variables. The results showed that three diatom indices were weakly correlated with chemical oxygen demand (COD), qualitative Habitat Evaluation Index (QH), and dissolved oxygen (DO). Four macroinvertebrate indices were associated with total phosphorus (TP) while total nitrogen (TN), and agricultural land (AL) had a significant influence on assemblages, suggesting that macroinvertebrates could respond to nutrient levels in the Wei River basin. All land use types had a strong effect on fish indices except AL, indicating that fish would be better used as indicators of spatial changes in the aquatic ecosystem. In conclusion, fish and macroinvertebrates have the potential for use in routine monitoring programs in the Wei River basin.

Investigation of the type material of Microneis gracillima, Navicula pyrenaica, Achnanthes amphicephala, Achnanthes thienemannii and Achnanthidium rostropyrenaicum (Achnanthidiaceae, Bacillariophyta) and additional populations of the species

“…4, figs 2, 4) resemble A. amphicephalum, although other specimens of this population from the Susquehanna River, Pennsylvania and the Holston River, Virginia, USA, have wider, subcapitate poles. Other reports, without photographic documentation, include records from Tibet (Ge et al 2022), the Shanxi Province (Hu et al 2012) and the Wei River basin (Liu et al 2020) in China, and Serchina, Kurdistan, Iraq (Maulood & Hinton 1979). In the latter location it was most abundant in the autumn in the tychoplankton of spring pools on limestone at low oxygen concentration, pH 7.3, CaCO 3 up to 790 mg.l -1 (Maulood & Hinton 1979).…”

Heavy Metal Pollution in Xinfengjiang River Sediment and the Response of Fish Species Abundance to Heavy Metal Concentrations

“…In addition, Pb, Cd and Hg do not perform any known functions in human biochemistry or physiology, nor do they naturally exist in organisms [ 13 ]. There is extensive literature on the accumulation of heavy metals in fish [ 3 , 10 , 11 , 14 , 15 , 16 ]. Cd, As, Cu, Zn, Pb and Cr have toxic effects to C. carpio which are sensitive to heavy metals concentration [ 17 ]; Cu, Zn, Cd and Pb in particular have the highest bioaccumulation in C. carpio [ 18 ].…”