Water Quality Assessment of Ogbese River, Ekiti State Using Biological Approaches

Abstract

Background and Objective: Ogbese River in Ekiti State, Nigeria serves numerous purposes to the residents in and around the water body.The study aimed to require constant biomonitoring to determine its ecological integrity. Materials and Methods: The spatial occurrence of planktons and benthos of the Ogbese River, Ekiti State, Nigeria was carried out in September, 2020 in 4 stations. The samples were collected using plankton nets for planktons and Van Veen grabs for the collection of benthos samples. Three community structure indices used include, Margalefʼs diversity index (d), Shannon-Wiener index (H1) and Evenness were used to analyse biological composition and diversity. Results: A total taxa of 43 and an abundance value of 221 cells mLG 1 was recorded for plankton during the study period. Margalef index varied from 2.762 in station 4-4.569 in station 2 for zooplankton. On the other hand, the Shannon-Wiener diversity index ranged from 2.236 in station 4-3.284 in station 2. The most evenly species distributed station was station 3 (7) while the least evenly species distributed station was station 1 (0.9158). Margalef index varied from 2.762 in station 4-4.569 in station 2 for zooplankton. On the other hand, the Shannon-Wiener diversity index ranged from 2.236 in station 4-3.284 in station 2. Conclusion: The most evenly species distributed station was station 3 (7) while the least evenly species distributed station was station 1 (0.9158). Four macrobenthos taxa were recorded in all (4) the sampled stations chironomid larva being more abundant (32). The results revealed that the water body is pristine.