The role of hydro‐environmental factors in Mayfly (Ephemeroptera, Insecta) community structure: Identifying threshold responses

Ramulifho, Pfananani; Foord, Stefan H.; Rivers-Moore, NA

doi:10.1002/ece3.6333

Cited by 12 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 68 publications

(118 reference statements)

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“…Water temperature explained the most significant amount of variation in relative abundance, as has been reported in other studies (Ramulifho et al, 2020;Buss and Salles, 2007;Jacobus et al, 2019;Adu and Oyeniyi, 2019;Bauernfeind and Moog, 2000). Water temperature in these sites is driven by riparian vegetation.…”

Section: Physico-chemical Variables and Baetid Community Compositionsupporting

confidence: 77%

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Relationships between reference site quality and baetid mayfly assemblages in mountainous streams of the Luvuvhu catchment, South Africa

Pfananani Ramulifho,

Nick Rivers-Moore,

Stefan Foord

2023

WSA

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With water quality deteriorating rapidly at a global scale, river sections suited to serve as reference sites are being increasingly lost. It thus becomes critical to develop rapid methods to confirm that previously monitored sites continue meet the requirements of reliable reference sites. In the absence of pristine sites, 9 near-natural sites, as defined by the Kleynhans (1996) classification, were used as reference sites for the Luvuvhu River catchment to compare the quality of physico-chemical factors against a biological metric. Baetid mayfly community structure at a site was chosen as an index of water quality, since this family is common in all types of freshwaters, highly diverse and adapted to unpolluted running water. Baetid larvae were sampled monthly from stones-in-current biotopes across 9 sites for over 1 year, between December 2016 and January 2018. A Spearman’s correlation test was used to evaluate the relationship between physico-chemical factors and identify redundant variables. Water quality standards were measured against the national water quality guidelines for aquatic ecosystems. We used a generalized linear model to determine the effect of physico-chemical variables on baetid species, and canonical correspondence analysis to show the relationships between baetid species, sites, and physico-chemical variables. A total of 3 039 individuals belonging to 12 mayfly species were recorded. Our findings indicated that while the physico-chemical factors were highly variable, they were within favourable ranges to reflect reference site conditions. While water temperature was the most important driver of baetid community structure in general, as it negatively affected their abundances, a subset of species (Pseudoponnota sp., Pseudocloeon sp., Acanthiops varius and Demoulinia crassi) showed clear responses to changes in TDS and stream width. We conclude that specific baetid species show good potential as biological indicators of reference sites and chronic water temperature stress, making assessment of reference sites easier.

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Section: Physico-chemical Variables and Baetid Community Compositionsupporting

confidence: 77%

“…These sites were all well aerated (Fig. 2) and provide a home to a variety of macroinvertebrate organisms (Ramulifho et al, 2020). Each site was sampled on a monthly basis from December of 2016 to January of 2018.…”

Section: Biological and Physico-chemical Samplingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Relationships between reference site quality and baetid mayfly assemblages in mountainous streams of the Luvuvhu catchment, South Africa

Pfananani Ramulifho,

Nick Rivers-Moore,

Stefan Foord

2023

WSA

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“…Pond [ 49 ] and Pond et al [ 50 ] found that increased conductivity was harmful to several macroinvertebrate groups, particularly Ephemeroptera species, with a fair amount of mayflies dropping dramatically in streams with conductivity surpassing 175 µs/cm –1 . The effect of water temperature, Cond, and TDS on macroinvertebrates, including Ephemeroptera species, has been confirmed by many researchers [ 46 , 51 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 81%

Ephemeroptera (Mayflies) Assemblages and Environmental Variation along Three Streams Located in the Dry-Hot Valleys of Baima Snow Mountain, Yunnan, Southwest China

Farooq

Tan

et al. 2021

Insects

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Mountain freshwater ecosystems are threatened all over the world by a range of human-induced stresses, ensuing in a rapid loss of habitats and species diversity. Many macroinvertebrates are reactive to habitat disturbance, and mayflies (Ephemeroptera) are amongst the most sensitive groups. Despite they are susceptible to environmental deviation, knowledge concerning their species richness and diversity is still unknown in remote areas. The objectives of this study were to (1) investigate the mayfly species assemblage and community composition along different mountain streams and assess potential differences, and (2) identify the environmental variation and its influence on the structure of mayfly communities within such freshwater systems. We collected biological and environmental data from 35 sites situated along elevation gradients in the Baima Snow Mountain, northwest Yunnan, China. Multivariate analyses were performed on the environmental variables and the mayfly species composition, as well as on richness and diversity indices. We found that the community composition of mayflies was different across all three watercourses. Among the 18 Ephemeroptera taxa identified, Baetis sp. and Baetiella marginata were highly dominant, accounting for over 50% of the dissimilarity of each stream. In terms of species assemblages, almost all sites in the Yeri stream hosted good-quality habitats for several mayfly species, as reflected by the highest species richness. The Benzilan stream followed, whereas the Sharong stream showed relatively low mayfly assemblage. This variation was explained by the high environmental heterogeneity between the three watercourses. In particular, the RDA model revealed that among the different environmental factors analyzed, altitude, conductivity, total dissolved solids, water temperature, dissolved silicon, and pH explained most of the variation in species composition. Moreover, the altitude alone explained 17.74% of the variation, and in-depth analysis confirmed its significant effect on diversity indices. Further research should focus on evaluating the scale of threats to this important group of insects in the mountain freshwater ecosystem, particularly the impact of human-induced disturbances such as land use/landcover alterations.

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“…Mayfly nymphs are strongly influenced by several environmental conditions, for example, Vilenica et al [4] noted that the nymphal growth, embryonic development, and survival rate were affected by water temperature. Also other studies showed that mayflies are negatively associated with increasing conductivity and TDS of the aquatic system [5][6][7].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 90%

Use of the Aquatic Mayfly (Insecta: Ephemeroptera) as Environmental Bio-Indicator in Jordan

Alhejoj¹,

Hiasat²,

Salameh³

et al. 2023

IJDNE

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In this article, aquatic mayflies from several wadis in Jordan are studied on their potential use as environmental indicators. Nine species of mayfly were observed in the studied wadis, encompassing Baetis monnerati, Cheleocloeon soldani, Cloeon vanharteni, Cloeon gr simile, Baetis pacis, Nigrobaetis vuatazi, Choroterpes ortali, Caenis antoniae, and Caenis macrura. Among Baetidae species, Baetis monnerati was more abundant and seems to be the most tolerant species to pollution. In addition, it tolerates water salinities of up to reach 1.000 µS/cm. Contrastingly, Baetis pacis was also observed to be the most intolerant species to pollution. The species survives in very good freshwater quality that makes it a perfect indicator of very clean water. Cloeon vanharteni live in brackish lentic habitat with dense vegetation. This species was found together with Cloeon gr simile. Both can tolerate salty water, with salinities of up to 16.000 µS/cm and tolerate in addition, organically polluted water. Furthermore, Choroterpes ortali was found to colonize slightly saline, mineralized and polluted water like Nigrobaetis vuatazi and Cheleocloeon soldani.Caenis macrura indicates clean to moderate polluted while Caenis antoniae is less pollution-tolerant, and only found in clean to weakly polluted environments. The study concludes that Baetidae mayflies can serve as powerful indicators of the environmental conditions than other mayfly families in Jordan.

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The role of hydro‐environmental factors in Mayfly (Ephemeroptera, Insecta) community structure: Identifying threshold responses

Cited by 12 publications

References 68 publications

Relationships between reference site quality and baetid mayfly assemblages in mountainous streams of the Luvuvhu catchment, South Africa

Relationships between reference site quality and baetid mayfly assemblages in mountainous streams of the Luvuvhu catchment, South Africa

Ephemeroptera (Mayflies) Assemblages and Environmental Variation along Three Streams Located in the Dry-Hot Valleys of Baima Snow Mountain, Yunnan, Southwest China

Use of the Aquatic Mayfly (Insecta: Ephemeroptera) as Environmental Bio-Indicator in Jordan

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