Aquatic insect communities in small stream in the south of Brazil.

Pollution of rivers and streams, by anthropic action, is characterized as an environmental, social, and sanitary problem. Factors such as the association between the marginal vegetation, the distribution of the substrates in the riverbed, and the availability of allochthonous organic matter influence the distribution and composition of the aquatic entomofauna. The objective of this study was to analyze the structure of aquatic insect communities in a pasture stream in northern Paraná, southern Brazil, with emphasis on the groups of indicators of good water quality, thus inferring the conditions of its preservation. Samples were collected from July to October in three parts of the stream (P1, P2, and P3), where the insect faune was collected with the aid of a sieve in the foliage substrate and washing of rocks and decomposing pieces of wood. A total of 1323 individuals were collected, being Chironomidae (Diptera) the most abundant taxon. The analysis of the biotic indices (EPT/Chironomidae, IBF, BMWP, and BMWP/ASPT) and diversity indicated better preservation conditions at points P1 and P3 where the riparian forest was well preserved, with less exposure to the stream bed. In P2, the entomofauna presented less diversity and the biotic indexes indicated loss of water quality, showing the impacts of changes in the marginal vegetation of this section. In a generally preserved aquatic environment, small changes in its vegetation are sufficient to cause an imbalance in the aquatic insect community, showing the efficiency of these organisms as bio-indicators and the sensitivity of biotic indexes.

Diversidade e similaridade entre populações de insetos aquáticos em riachos de primeira e segunda ordem, sul do Brasil / Similarity and diversity between aquatic insect populations in streams of first and second order, south of Brazil

A estrutura das comunidades de macroinvertebrados aquáticos é influenciada pela velocidade da correnteza do curso d’água e da heterogeneidade de habitats entre outras características. Este trabalho verificou a relação da diversidade de insetos aquáticos com a ordem hidrológica de dois riachos. Para isso, foi testada a seguinte hipótese: a diversidade de insetos associados ao mesmo substrato em trechos equivalentes de riachos classificados em diferentes ordens é semelhante. Amostras de folhiço foram coletas nos trechos médios do riacho Cascatinha (primeira ordem) e do riacho João Pinheiro (segunda ordem), pertencentes à bacia do rio Tibagi, Telêmaco Borba, Paraná, Brasil. A diversidade de cada riacho foi obtida pelo índice de Shannon. Os valores do índice de diversidade foram baixos para ambos os riachos (0,8 no riacho de primeira ordem e 0,89 para o riacho de segunda ordem), não havendo diferença estatística (t= -1,12; p= 0,27). A similaridade entre os riachos foi de 0,51. Esses resultados permitiram verificar que, nos riachos estudados, não há efeito da ordem hidrológica sobre a diversidade de insetos aquáticos (F= 0,14; p=0,71), assim, a hipótese testada foi aceita. O táxon mais abundante, em ambos os riachos, foi Chironomidae (Diptera), representando 82,7% do total de indivíduos coletados. No entanto, ao retirar-se Chironomidae das análises, a hipótese passa a ser rejeitada. A elevada abundância de indivíduos de Chironomidae influenciou os valores da diversidade local..

Aquatic communities of macroinvertebrates are influencied by rapid velocity, habitat heterogeneity and other characteristics. This study examined a relationship between aquatic insects diversity with hydrologic order of two streams. We tested following hypothesis: diversity of insects associated with the same substrate in equal parts of streams, classified in different orders, are similar. Samples of litter were collected in middle stretches of stream Cascatinha (first order) and stream João Pinheiro (second order), Tibagi river basin, Telêmaco Borba, Paraná, Brazil. Diversity of each stream was obtained by Shannon index. Diversity values were low for both streams (0.8 for the first order stream and 0.89 for the second order stream) with no statistical difference (t = -1.12; p = 0. 27). Similarity between the streams was 0.51. These results allowed us to verify that, to studied streams, hydrological order has no effect on aquatic insects diversity (F= 0.14, p= 0.71), so the hypothesis was accepted. The most abundant taxon in both streams was Chironomidae (Diptera), representing 82.7% of total collected. However when Chironomidae was removed from analysis, the hypotesis was refused. An high abundance of Chironomidae individuals had influenced values of local diversity..