Macrozoobenthic communities of the saline Bolshaya Samoroda River (Lower Volga region, Russia): species composition, density, biomass and production

Abstract

We investigated species composition, density, biomass and estimated production of macrozoobenthos communities in the middle and mouth reaches of the saline Bolshaya Samoroda River (Volgograd region, Russia) from May 2013 to April 2014. A total of 30 euryhaline and halophilic taxa were found during the study period. There were significant differences in the species composition between both study sites that could be explained by differences in ecological conditions. The production of macrozoobenthos in the middle reach was 22.54 g dry wt m -2 yr -1 , and in the mouth reach the production was 117 g dry wt m -2 yr -1 . In all seasons of the year at both sites, the greatest contribution to benthic production was made by the same taxonomic groups. Diptera dominated at both sites. Amphipods were abundant only in the middle reach. In the middle reach, the greatest contributions to production were made by Gammarus lacustris, Sphaeromias pictus and Glyptotendipes salinus, and in the mouth reach, Microchironomus deribae, Tanytarsus kharaensis and Chironomus salinarius contributed to benthic production the most.

How Does Mining Salinisation Gradient Affect the Structure and Functioning of Macroinvertebrate Communities?

“…Besides G. tigrinus, Diptera (Stratiomyidae, Ephydridae), Coleoptera (Chrysomelidae), Odonata (Coenagrionidae) and Heteroptera (Corixidae) also had the highest salinity tolerance, which is in accordance with previous findings (e.g. Piscart et al 2005a;Rutherford and Kefford 2005;Velasco et al 2006;Dunlop et al 2007;Kefford et al 2012;Schröder et al 2015;Ladrera et al 2016;Castillo et al 2018;Obolewski et al 2018;Golovatyuk et al 2019;Gutiérrez-Cánovas et al 2019b;Mouhoubi et al 2019). The genera Sigara sp.…”

Morphology and ecology of Microchironomus deribae (Freeman, 1957) (Diptera, Chironomidae) from the saline rivers of the Elton lake basin (Russia)

“…Microchironomus deribae is widely distributed in Afro-tropical region, Oriental region and Palaearctic (North Africa, West Europe, Chine, Mongolia) [Wang, 2000;Hayford, 2005;Shcherbina, Zelentsov, 2008;Saether, Spies, 2013]. In Russia Microchironomus deribae recorded from Volgogradskaya Oblast in the Elton Lake Basin [Zinchenko et al, 2017[Zinchenko et al, a, b, 2021Golovatyuk et al, 2020], Orenburg region (Southern Urals) in the Tuzlukkol River [Shaikhutdi-nova, 2019] and the Verkhne-Iremel Reservoir (Republic of Bashkortostan) [Zelentsov et al, 2014].…”

Characterisation of Benthic Macroinvertebrate Communities in Small Watercourses of the European Central Plains Ecoregion and the Effect of Different Environmental Factors

“…The threshold concentration of total nitrogen, which has a negative effect on aquatic organisms, is 3.48 mgN/L at pH 6.5, and 0.25 mgN/L at pH 9.0 [ 76 ]. A negative effect of pH on, among other taxa (e.g., Gammaridae and Chironomidae) was indicated by Krepski et al [ 26 ] and Golovatyuk et al [ 77 ]. Regression analysis indicates that pH has a very strong effect on Oligochaeta and a weak effect on Bivalvia, while the CCA analysis showed a direct effect of pH on Trichoptera, Decapoda, and Hirudinea.…”