2024/08/08 by Carly Hoskin, Hoskin, Carly
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Environmental Science · #Aquatic Invertebrate Ecology and Behavior #Freshwater macroinvertebrate diversity and ecology #Invertebrate Taxonomy and Ecology
paper · pdf · doi:10.24382/3bar-xy98
openalex publication_date 2024/08/08 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/01
1. Studies of macroinvertebrate assemblages have tended to find relationships between \nenvironmental variables and the species present in the assemblage. Here, I looked at the \nrelationship between assemblages and environmental variables in six drainage ditches in \na small area of the Somerset Levels, UK. \n2. I sampled aquatic macroinvertebrates and a range of environmental physicochemical \nvariables from the six ditches, and investigated the differing relationships between the \nenvironmental variables and a range of assemblage datasets (overall assemblage, \nColeoptera, Hemiptera, Odonata, and Mollusca). \n3. Environmental variables surveyed were relatively homogeneous, with the exception of \ncalcium, conductivity and nitrate. Diversity, species richness, and evenness for overall \nand single-taxon assemblages varied between sites, with no discernable pattern between \nlarge and small ditches. \n4. Different taxonomic groups reacted strongly to different environmental variables, and no \nclear deterministic pattern is expressed, either overall or within taxa. \n5. Species distributions appear to be largely due to chance, rather than significant interaction \nwith the physicochemical environment, between ditches which are close enough together \nto be within the dispersal range of many taxa, and between which the chemical \nenvironment does not radically alter.