The relationship between electrical conductivity and selected macroinvertebrate communities in four river systems of south-west Victoria, Australia |
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Authors: | Ben J Kefford |
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Institution: | (1) Department of Natural Resources and Environment, Marine and Freshwater Resources Institute, 123 Brown St, 3084 Heidelberg, Australia |
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Abstract: | In order to relate macroinvertebrate fauna to electrical conductivity (EC), a survey of selected orders of macroinvertebrates
was conducted in the Glenelg, Hopkins, Merri and Barwon River Catchments in south-west Victoria, Australia. The survey consisted
of sampling 21 paired sites at confluences of streams. There was little difference between the in-stream habitat but there
was a range of differences in EC between each of the paired sites. The dissimilarity of macroinvertebrate fauna between the
paired sites was compared to the proportional difference in EC and other water quality variables (dissolved oxygen, water
temperature, pH, NO2−N, NO3−N, PO4 and turbidity). This allowed the elimination of EC being confounded with geographical scale parameters and took into account
other water quality parameters that may be confounded with EC. A positive relationship was found between the dissimilarity
of the fauna at each of the two paired sites and the proportional difference in EC. No such relationship was found for any
other measured water quality variable. The results of this survey show that macroinvertebrate community structure is associated
with EC of the river systems investigated after eliminating large scale geographical patterns, in-stream habitat and the measured
water quality parameters. |
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Keywords: | confounding parameters nutrients salinity survey design |
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