Bioassessment of Macroinvertebrate Communities Influenced by Gradients of Human Activities

Rui Li; Xianfu Li; Ronglong Yang; Muhammad Farooq; Zhen Tian; Yaning Xu; Nan Shao; Shuoran Liu; Wen Xiao

doi:10.3390/insects15020131

Bioassessment of Macroinvertebrate Communities Influenced by Gradients of Human Activities

Insects. 2024 Feb 14;15(2):131. doi: 10.3390/insects15020131.

Authors

Rui Li^{1

2

3}, Xianfu Li^{1

2

3}, Ronglong Yang^{1

2

3}, Muhammad Farooq^{1

4}, Zhen Tian⁴, Yaning Xu^{1

2

3}, Nan Shao^{1

2

3}, Shuoran Liu^{1

2

3}, Wen Xiao^{1

2

3

5}

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Eastern-Himalaya Biodiversity Research, Dali University, Dali 671003, China.
² Collaborative Innovation Center for Biodiversity and Conservation in the Three Parallel Rivers Region of China, Dali 671003, China.
³ The Provincial Innovation Team of Biodiversity Conservation and Utility of the Three Parallel Rivers Region, Dali University, Dali 671003, China.
⁴ State Key Laboratory of Freshwater Ecology and Biotechnology, Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430072, China.
⁵ Yunling Black-and-White Snub-Nosed Monkey Observation and Research Station of Yunnan Province, Dali 671003, China.

Abstract

This study explores the impact of anthropogenic land use changes on the macroinvertebrate community structure in the streams of the Cangshan Mountains. Through field collections of macroinvertebrates, measurement of water environments, and delineation of riparian zone land use in eight streams, we analyzed the relationship between land use types, stream water environments, and macroinvertebrate diversities. The results demonstrate urban land use type and water temperature are the key environmental factors driving the differences in macroinvertebrate communities up-, mid-, and downstream. The disturbed streams had lower aquatic biodiversity than those in their natural state, showing a decrease in disturbance-sensitive aquatic insect taxa and a more similar community structure. In the natural woodland area, species distributions may be constrained by watershed segmentation and present more complex community characteristics.

Keywords: Cangshan streams; homogenization; macroinvertebrate; upstream and downstream habitats; watershed topographic segmentation.

Grants and funding

This research was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation Program of P.R. China [31960255, 31760126], the Yunnan provincial “Xing Dian Talent Support Program” [XDYC-QNRC-2022-0040] and the Second Tibetan Plateau Scientific Expedition and Research Program (STEP) Grant No. SQ2019QZKK2002. It was jointly funded by the provincial innovation team of biodiversity conservation and utility of the three parallel rivers region from Dali University and the Key Laboratory of Yunnan State Education Department on Erhai Lake Basin Protection and the Sustainable Development Research.