The indication of morphological degradation of streams and rivers using Simuliidae

Blackfly communities from five German stream types out of two ecoregions (small and mid-sized siliceous gravel-bed mountain streams of the Central mountains, ecoregion 9, and organic type brooks, small and mid-sized sand-bottomed Central lowland streams of ecoregion 14) are compared. Ecoregional, as well as stream type-specific biocoenotic differences are discussed. The presence of Prosimulium sp. was restricted to mountain streams, whereas Simulium lineatum seemed to prefer mid-sized sand-bottomed Central lowland streams, and S. vernum showed a clear preference for Central lowland streams. An Index of Morphological Stress (IMS), derived from 22 geo-hydromorphological parameters recorded during sampling in the field, is presented. According to the IMS values, sites are divided into morphologically ‘unstressed’ sites (high or good morphological quality) and ‘stressed’ sites (moderate, poor or bad morphological quality), and biocoenotic differences of the two categories are discussed. Two stream types and the entire data set showed significantly higher numbers of taxa at ‘unstressed’ sites. Linear Multiple Regression (LMR) was used to identify geo-hydromorphological parameters that significantly explain the variance of the three most constant taxa, Prosimulium sp., P. hirtipes and Simulium sp. in the LMR model.