Diversity and distribution patterns of benthic insects in streams of the Aurès arid region (NE Algeria)

Ghougali, Fayssal; Bachir, Abdelkrim Si; Chaabane, Nassima; Brik, Imen; Medjber, Rachid Ait; Rouabah, Abdelhak

doi:10.1515/ohs-2019-0004

Figures & Tables

General hydrographic network of the surveyed area with the location of the six wadis and the study sites in the semi-arid region of NE Algeria

Box-plots showing differences between the six studied wadis in terms of the community abundance (AF), total specific richness (S), Shannon diversity index (H’) and Pielou index (J’) of benthic entomofauna. B – Wadi Bouilef; C – W. Chaaba; E – W. El Ma; G – W. Chélia; H – W. Hamla; Y – W. Yabous

Multivariate regression tree for the abundance of insect orders. Each split (terminal nodes) is labeled with a variable and the value that determines the split. Substrate (FS – Fine Sand; CS – Coarse Sand; S – Stone; R – Rock); human pressure (a – forest; b – agriculture and domestic; c – urban)

Redundancy analysis (RDA) ordination plots. a) taxa and environmental variables (taxa codes are explained in Table 3); b) sites (taxa codes are explained in Table 1)

Physicochemical characteristics of water at the study sites

Sites	T°	Flow Velocity (cm s ⁻¹)	pH	Cond (μS cm⁻¹)	TDS (mg l⁻¹)	Sal (PSU)	NO⁻ ₂(mg l⁻¹)	NH⁺ ₄(mg l⁻¹)	PO ³⁻ ₄(mg l⁻¹)
C1	17	25 < v < 50	7.67	517	228	0.2	0.03	0.17	0.14
C2	22	25 < v < 50	7.43	655	289	0.2	0.02	0.06	0.1
C3	17	v < 10	7.66	608	269	0.2	0.03	0.11	0.05
B1	20	25 < v < 50	8.12	702	338	0.3	0	0	16.8
B2	18	25 < v < 50	8.14	722	348	0.3	0	0	2.4
B3	17	25 < v < 50	8.16	725	349	0.3	0	0	0.09
E1	24	25 < v < 50	8.12	615	271	0.2	0.02	0.05	0.02
E2	26	25 < v < 50	7.74	523	230	0.2	0.02	0.02	0.03
E3	24	25 < v < 50	8.04	550	242	0.2	0.02	0.02	0.04
H1	19	10 < v < 25	7.05	633	293	0.2	0.02	0.02	0.08
H2	20	25 < v < 50	7.74	669	303	0.3	0.01	0.17	0.06
H3	20	10 < v < 25	7.82	921	416	0.4	0.02	0.15	0.14
G1	19	v < 10	7.21	665	333	0.3	0	0	0.15
G2	20	25 < v < 50	7.5	741	371	0.3	0	0.18	0.15
G3	19	10 < v < 25	7.1	873	437	0.4	0	0.03	0.15
Y1	17	v > 50	7.37	421	187	0.1	0.01	0.4	0.01
Y2	16	v > 50	7.41	562	247	0.2	0.03	0.05	0.14
Y3	16	v < 10	7.35	662	293	0.2	0.02	0.21	0.04

Systematic inventory, codes and abundance of benthic insects collected in six streams of NE Algeria_ W_C – Wadi Chaaba; W_B – W_ Bouilef; W_E – W_ El Ma; W_H – W_ Hamla; W_G – W_ Chélia; W_Y – W_ Yabous_ AF (%) – abundance frequency; und_ – unidentified taxa

Order/Family	Genus/Species	Code	W.C	W.B	W.E	W.H	W.G	W.Y	AF (%)
Ephemeroptera
Baetidae	Baeti s sp.	Bae	12.24	29.72	18.2		5.37	11.02	13.33
	Procloeon sp.	Pro	1.02		0.24		1.65		0.39
	Acentrella sp.	Ace		6.30				2.20	1.42
Heptageniidae	Heptagenia sp.	Hep	11.22						0.71
Heptageniidae	Heptagenia sp.	Ecd	7.14						0.45
Leptophlebiidae	Leptophlebia sp.	Lep	3.06						0.19
Caenidae	Caenis sp.	Cae	1.02	5.40					0.45
Total Ephemeroptera			35.71	41.44	18.45	0	7.02	13.22	16.96
Plecoptera
Capiniidae	Capnia sp.	Cap	4.08						0.26
Chloroperlidae	Siphonoperla sp.	Sip	2.04			53.84			0.58
Chloroperlidae	Xanthoperla sp.	Xan	3.06						0.19
Nemouridae	Protonemura sp.	Prot			1.24				0.32
Total Plecoptera			9.18	0	1.24	53.84	0	0	1.36
Heteroptera
Notonecti dae	Notonecta sp.	Not					0.41		0.06
Hydrometridae	Hydrometra sp.	Hydrom	1.02	0.90	0.49				0.26
Mesoveliidae	Mesovelia sp.	Mes						0.14	0.06
Veliidae	Microvelia sp.	Mic	6.12					0.44	0.58
Nepidae	Nepa sp.	Nep			0.24			0.14	0.13
Total Heteroptera			7.14	0.90	0.74	0	0.41	0.72	1.10
Hymenoptera
Agriotypidae	Agriotypus sp.	Agr					4.13		0.65
Coleoptera
Scirtidae	Hydrocyphon sp.	Hydroc	25.51			30.76			1.88
Dyscidae	Bidessus sp.	Bid			0.24		0.41		0.13
	Agabus sp.	Aga			0.24				0.06
	Hydrovatus sp.	Hydrov	3.06		0.24		0.41	0.44	0.45
	Ilybius fenestratus	I.fen	3.06		0.24		0.41	0.44	0.06
	Copelats sp.	Cop					0.82	0.44	0.32
	Hydroporinae und.	Hydrop	1.02						0.06
Elmidae	Dupophilus sp.	Dup			0.49				0.13
Elmidae	Elmidae and	Elm			0.74				0.19
Hydrophiidae	Laccobius sp.	Lac			0.24				0.06
Hydraenidae	Hydraena sp.	Hydra			0.24				0.06
Hydraenidae	Hydroscapha sp.	Hydros			0.24				0.06
Noteridae	Noterus sp.	Not	2.04			7.69			0.19
Spercheidae	Helophorus sp.	Hel	1.02						0.06
Total Coleoptera			32.65	0	2.74	38.46	41.64	0.88	3.75
Trichoptera
Brachycentridae	Brachycentrus sp.	Bra			2.24		70.24	11.76	16.76
Hydropsychidae	Hydropsyche sp.	Hydrops	6.12	42.43	0.24				3.5
Hydropsychidae	Cheumatopsyche sp.	Che	1.02	42.43	0.24				0.06
Total Trichoptera			7.14	42.43	0.49		70.24	11.76	20.32
Diptera
Limoniidae	Dicranota sp.	Dic	4.08			7.69		0.44	0.52
Scatophagidae	Acanthocnema sp.	Aca	3.06				0.41		0.26
Tabanidae	Tabanidae und.	Tab			0.74				0.19
Culicidae	Culex sp.	Cul			0.24				0.06
Chaoboridae	Mochloyx sp.	Moc						0.14	0.06
Chironomidae	Chironomus sp.	Chi			0.24				0.06
Dixidae	Dixa sp.	Dix		9				0.14	0.71
Simuliidae	Simuliidae und.	Sim	1.02	6.30	73.06		16.11	72.64	53.98
Total Diptera			8.16	15.31	74.31	7.69	16.52	73.36	55.86

General characteristics of the studied streams and sites in NE Algeria

Wadis	Site	Alttitude (m)	Longitude (N)	Latitude (E)	Dominant substrate	Human pressure
W. Chaaba	C1	1331	35°33ʹ42ʺ	06°00ʹ43ʺ	coarse sand, stone, rocks	forest
	C2	1270	35°33ʹ07ʺ	06°00ʹ24ʺ	coarse sand, stone, rocks	forest
	C3	1233	35°32ʹ34ʺ	06°00ʹ37ʺ	coarse sand, fine sand, Stone	forest/agricultural
W. Bouilef	B1	1065	35°37ʹ02ʺ	06°11ʹ16ʺ	fine sand, stone	forest/agricultural
	B2	1032	35°36ʹ29ʺ	06°11ʹ39ʺ	coarse sand, rocks	agricultural
	B3	1024	35°36ʹ21ʺ	06°11ʹ50ʺ	coarse sand, stone	agricultural
W. El Ma	E1	1431	35°35ʹ55ʺ	06°02ʹ25ʺ	coarse sand, rocks	forest
	E2	1235	35°36ʹ40ʺ	06°02ʹ05ʺ	coarse sand, stone	forest/ agricultural
	E3	1143	35°37ʹ19ʺ	06°02ʹ14ʺ	coarse sand, stone	urban
W. Hamla	H1	1406	35°34ʹ47ʺ	06°03ʹ03ʺ	fine sand, stone	forest
	H2	1289	35°34ʹ51ʺ	06°04ʹ09ʺ	stone, rocks	agricultural
	H3	1246	35°34ʹ45ʺ	06°04ʹ37ʺ	coarse sand, fine sand	urban
W. Chelia	G1	1560	35°17ʹ30ʺ	06°38ʹ11ʺ	coarse sand, stone,	forest/agricultural
	G2	1415	35°17ʹ04ʺ	06°38ʹ50ʺ	rocks coarse sand, stone	forest/urban
	G3	1320	35°16ʹ47ʺ	06°40ʹ01ʺ	coarse sand, stone, rocks	agricultural
W. Yabous	Y1	1365	35°21ʹ10ʺ	06°38ʹ35ʺ	coarse sand, stone, rocks	forest/agricultural
	Y2	1285	35°21ʹ39ʺ	06°38ʹ37ʺ	coarse sand, stone, rocks	agricultural/urban
	Y3	1097	35°24ʹ54ʺ	06°39ʹ19ʺ	coarse sand, stone, rocks	agricultural/urban

Generalized linear model analyzing effects of environmental variables and human pressure (H_ pressure) on the taxonomic richness and abundance of benthic insects in streams of NE Algeria

	Taxonomic richness (S)					Abundance
	Df	Deviance	Resid. Df	Resid. Dev	Pr (> Chi)	Df	Deviance	Resid.	Df Resid. Dev	Pr (> Chi)
Null			773	2824.7	0.08758			773	79260
Altitude	1	2.92	772	2821.8	0.08758	1	2687.7	772	76572	< 2.2 × 10⁻¹⁶ ***
Conductivity	1	600.92	771	2220.8	< 2.2 × 10⁻¹⁶ ***	1	9284.5	771	67288	< 2.2 × 10⁻¹⁶ ***
NO₂⁻	1	230.92	770	1989.9	< 2.2 × 10⁻¹⁶ ***	1	758.1	770	66772	< 2.2 × 10⁻¹⁶ ***
pH	1	33.17	769	1956.8	8.427 × 10⁻⁹ ***	1	4227.5	769	45952	< 2.2 × 10⁻¹⁶ ***
PO₄³⁻	1	40.01	768	1916.7	2.522 × 10⁻¹⁰ ***	1	655.6	768	45108	< 2.2 × 10⁻¹⁶ ***
H. pressure	2	416.64	766	1500.1	< 2.2 × 10⁻¹⁶ ***	2	22932.3	766	14560	< 2.2 × 10⁻¹⁶ ***

Diversity and distribution patterns of benthic insects in streams of the Aurès arid region (NE Algeria)

Figures & Tables

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

Physicochemical characteristics of water at the study sites

Systematic inventory, codes and abundance of benthic insects collected in six streams of NE Algeria_ W_C – Wadi Chaaba; W_B – W_ Bouilef; W_E – W_ El Ma; W_H – W_ Hamla; W_G – W_ Chélia; W_Y – W_ Yabous_ AF (%) – abundance frequency; und_ – unidentified taxa

General characteristics of the studied streams and sites in NE Algeria

Generalized linear model analyzing effects of environmental variables and human pressure (H_ pressure) on the taxonomic richness and abundance of benthic insects in streams of NE Algeria

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