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

Abstract

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.

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

“…Several studies have demonstrated that baetid community structure reflects the environmental state of rivers effectively (Kubendran et al, 2017;Buss and Salles, 2007;Bauernfeind and Moog, 2000). Mayflies are characterized by narrow habitat tolerance and only occur in very clean freshwater, which makes them good bioindicators for very good water quality (Alhejoj et al, 2023;Buss and Salles, 2007;Kubendran et al, 2017).…”