Freshwaters are among the most threatened ecosystems, particularly in North Africa where urbanization and climate change are exerting an important pressure on aquatic fauna. Long-term investigation of macroinvertebrates is one of the best ways of tracking and understanding the influence of environmental and anthropogenic pressures on community dynamics. In this study, we focus on determining the community structure and diversity of benthic macroinvertebrates as well as the state of aquatic physicochemical parameters in the Bouhamdane Stream, near the outlet of Bouhamdane dam, Seybouse watershed, north-eastern Algeria. We carried out a bi-monthly sampling of macroinvertebrates and nine water physicochemical parameters from September 2017 to July 2018 at three sites. Results show that the collected macroinvertebrates (6756 individuals) belong to 15 families and 12 orders. The abundance of the macrofauna consisted of 88.19% crustaceans, 7.74% insects, 3.7% molluscs and 0.16% annelids. Physicochemical analyzes (depth, turbidity, pH, dissolved O2, temperature, salinity, and conductivity) showed variability among sites. The families of Gammaridae and Baetidae were the most frequent and the most abundant on all the stations. The results indicate that aquatic macroinvertebrates constitute good indicators of the biological quality of water. This study shows that even with the occurrence of regular dam water discharge, the macroinvertebrate community is still able to persist either through adaptation to high water velocity or high colonization rate.
A preliminary inventory of macroinvertebrate communities and a regular physicochemical analysis of groundwater were carried out in the Souk Ahras region (north-eastern Algeria). It aims to study and analyze the structure and distribution of underground aquatic species, thus determining the relationship that may exist between the quality of water in wells and springs with the diversity of aquatic fauna present in the habitats. Through 2018, 14 stations (10 wells and 4 springs) were monitored on a monthly basis, while water and aquatic fauna samples were taken. A principal component analysis (PCA) of the physicochemical quality parameters was carried out from the average values of each parameter. It has been observed that the waters are highly mineralized, due to the high values of total hardness, salinity, and sulfate levels in certain stations. The sources of contamination are mainly due to the raw wastewater circulating in the small canals. Also “seguias” are used either to evacuate wastewater or for irrigation, which seeps down to the water table. The collected aquatic fauna in all the 14 stations is diversified and contains 29 families which correspond to 4 taxa.
The performance of graduate students in research varies greatly across countries due to various factors, mainly socioeconomic and linguistic. The current situation is critical because the wealthiest countries are also the most linguistically equipped to navigate the English-dominant landscape of academia. Here, we assess the language of citations and the publishing performance of graduate students from three French-speaking countries: Algeria, Canada, and France, where Algeria is the least English proficient and the most economically disadvantaged. We found that the bibliography of PhD theses were English dominated in all regions (72.5% in Algeria compared with >93.1% in Western countries), whereas those of Masters theses were French dominated in Algeria (63.3%), relatively bilingual in France (47.6% French), but English dominated in Canada-Québec (94.7%) and Canada-BC (98.7%). Algerian PhD students produced fewer papers, were less likely to publish in journals with calculated impact factors, and received fewer citations than students who graduated from universities in France or in two Canadian provinces, British Columbia and Québec. Our results suggest that the economic and linguistic disadvantages faced by graduate students from non-Western backgrounds affect their academic performance, highlighting important issues in facing future global challenges.
The odonates of Algeria have been studied for more than a century and a half, but the Northwestern part of the country has historically received little attention. A recent study in central North Algeria reported a species new to the country, suggesting that new investigations in unexplored areas are necessary to fully understand the local odonatofauna. We studied assemblages of odonates in 23 sites in Sidi Bel Abbes (Northwest Algeria) by bimonthly recording adults across a 200 m-transect from May to August of 2019–2022. Our sampling yielded 29 species (13 damselflies and 16 dragonflies) belonging to 19 genera and seven families. We recorded a new locality for the regionally endangered Coenagrion mercuriale, expanding the western range limit of the species in Algeria. We documented the occurrence of Selysiothemis nigra, a species that has recently become more frequent in North Africa. Ischnura pumilio and Onychogomphus forcipatus unguiculatus, which are relatively rare in the region, were also recorded. The arid-dwelling Trithemis kirbyi and the Mediterranean endemic Orthetrum nitidinerve were quite common in the study area. This study fills an important gap of knowledge in our understanding of odonate geographic distribution in North Africa.
Aquatic macroinvertebrates are integral parts of functioning wetlands, inhabiting a diversity of aquatic ecosystems where communities are spatially structured. Macroinvertebrates of some Mediterranean regions such as North Africa are still not well studied. Here, we study the community structure of benthic macroinvertebrates in four different types of lotic and lentic wetlands in the semiarid Haut Plateaux of Northeast Algeria. Macroinvertebrates and 06 physicochemical parameters were sampled in 12 sites belonging to four types of habitats (lotic river, lentic river, dams, and sebkha [saline lentic water body]) during January-December 2021. Eventually, the character lentic-lotic was the most important variable affecting the affecting invertebrate communities in the Mediterranean region. The results revealed that sebkha and dams had a lower Shannon index than lentic and lotic rivers. Non-metric multidimensional scaling analysis showed a strong overlap between the community composition in lotic and lentic sites . Howeverin the three types of aquatic groups lentic river, dam and lotic habitats showed a strong overlap between the community whereas sebkha was markedly separated. Redundancy analysis showed that water velocity and pH, were the main drivers of community structure of macroinvertebrates, revealed a strong effect with pH (F1,8=4.15, P = 0.001) and water velocity (F1,8= 3.22, P = 0.002) , separating lotic communities from those that inhabited dams, lentic rivers, and sebkhas. As conclusion, this study contributes to the better understanding of the community structure of macroinvertebrates in semiarid North Africa where wetlands have been experiencing high anthropogenic disturbance.
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