Longitudinal variation in the composition of the benthic macroinvertebrate fauna of a typical North coast Jamaican river.

Abstract

Benthic macroinvertebrate fauna plays a major role in river ecosystems, especially those of tropical islands. Since there is no information on the distribution of benthic invertebrates along a Jamaican river, we report here on the composition of the benthic fauna of the Buff Bay river, on the Northern coast of Jamaica. A total of 14 samples were collected from five sites, using kick nets and a Surber sampler, between May 1997 and October 1998. We also examined the applicability of the rhithron/potamon model, and some of the premises of the River Continuum Concept (RCC) in relation to the distribution of invertebrate taxa. The results showed a total of 38 taxa of identified invertebrates. A group of dominant taxa, composed mainly of immature stages of insects, occurred at all sites. Two notable characteristics of the river were the absence of a true potamonic fauna and the low representation of the shredder functional feeding group in the community We conclude that, while there was minor variation in the composition of the benthic macroinvertebrate fauna among the sites, this was a response to local conditions within the river system. The characteristics of the community did not conform to either of the models. Rev. Biol. Trop. 60 (1): 291-303. Epub 2012 March 01.

Functional composition of benthic macroinvertebrate fauna in the plateau rivers, Bundelkhand, central India

“…A similar observation was also made by Hyslop & Hunte-Brown (2012) in a Jamaica tropical river. In the Ken and Tons, the percentage of scrapers increased with the increase in algal production (periphyton) as also appears where the use of fertilisers for agriculture leads to cumulative increase in nutrient concentrations from upper to lower stretches favouring the growth of benthic algae, thus accounting for the abundance of scrapers (Stone & Wallace 1998;Grubaugh et al 1996).…”

“…The dominance of collectors along the river length is also known in the tropical (Miserendino & Pizzolon 2003;Hyslop & Hunte-Brown 2012) and subtropical rivers (Burton & Sivaramakrishnan 1993;Jiang et al 2011;Mishra & Nautiyal 2011) of the world. In an Indian Himalayan river Bhagirathi collectors are known to be dominant in the headwater zone (Nautiyal 2010).…”

Diversity, distribution and habitat requirements of aquatic insect communities in tropical mountain streams (South-eastern Guinea, West Africa)

“…Therefore, the principal topics of biodiversity studies in this area are taxonomy, species inventory and distribution. Only once this basic information is established can tropical freshwater systems be viewed in a more holistic manner (Hyslop and Hunte-Brown, 2012). Significant efforts should also be made to develop realistic models of the structure and functioning of pristine or little modified tropical streams (Tomanova et al, 2006).…”

Testing for longitudinal zonation of macroinvertebrate fauna along a small upland headwater stream in two seasons

“…The composition and structure of stream biotic communities have been shown to change in response to the longitudinal changes in habitat conditions, such as temperature, hydraulic conditions such as shear stress, roughness Reynolds number, Froude number, current velocity, depth, width, discharge, substratum, and turbidity (Mérigoux & Dolédec 2004;Brooks et al 2005;Tomanova et al 2007;Mesa 2010;Jiang et al 2011;Hyslop & Hunte-Brown 2012;Nautiyal & Mishera Zonation of macroinvertebrate fauna along an upland stream 575 2012), food availability (Hynes 1970;Fisher 1982;Allan 1996), land cover and tributaries (Turner et al 2008;Yoshimura 2008).…”