Colonization Pattern of Aquatic Insects at Two Small Streams of Shillong, Meghalaya, North-East India
2021
Marwein, Identicia | Gupta, Susmita
To analyse the colonization pattern of aquatic insects of two small streams, their impact on changes occur during natural disturbance such as rainfall and their adaptations to changes in spatial and temporal scales. The analysis was carried out seasonally (dry and wet season) in four sites at two forest streams, Wahdienglieng and Umrisa originating from foothills of Shillong peak Meghalaya, north-east India from December, 2014 to September, 2015. The major families of colonized insects recorded were Baetidae, Leptophlebiidae, Heptageniidae (Ephemeroptera), Hydropsychidae (Trichoptera), Simuliidae and Chironomidae (Diptera). BMWPᵀᴴᴬᴵ and ASPTᵀᴴᴬᴵ showed clean to probable moderate water quality at two days experimented for both streams. Spearman’s correlation coefficient analysis showed a significant negative correlation between number of taxa and rainfall on both experimental days at Wahdienglieng and only on 15th day at Umrisa. Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA) revealed a strong association of rainfall and water temperature with certain abundant taxa on both the experimented days (15th & 30th days) at both the streams. Abundant aquatic insects were also assigned to their Functional Feeding Groups (FFG) in Wahdienglieng, FFG included collector—filterers (Hydropsychidae and Simuliidae), collector—gatherers (Leptophlebiidae), and Scraper (Heptageniidae and Baetidae). In Umrisa, in addition to the FFGs of Wahdienglieng, Shredder (Lepidostomatidae) and Predator (Gerridae and Corydalidae) groups were also recorded. The results of the seasonal variations in diversity and density of colonized insects indicated stability in the assemblage composition, as well as a high degree of resistance and recovery from any environmental disturbance.
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