2022 Early Hearing Detection & Intervention Virtual Conference
March 13 - 15, 2022
6/05/2017 | 3:15 PM - 3:30 PM | THE DEVELOPMENT OF A TRAIT BASED THEORITCAL TEMPLATE FOR ASSESSING MACROINVERTEBRATES VULNERABILITY TO ELAVATED SEDIMENTS LOADS IN TSITSA RIVER AND ITS TRIBUTARIES, SOUTH AFRICA | 301B
THE DEVELOPMENT OF A TRAIT BASED THEORITCAL TEMPLATE FOR ASSESSING MACROINVERTEBRATES VULNERABILITY TO ELAVATED SEDIMENTS LOADS IN TSITSA RIVER AND ITS TRIBUTARIES, SOUTH AFRICA
Fine sediment loads in global freshwater ecosystems have long been recognised as a major environmental problem. They pose serious threats to ecological structure and functions by adversely impacting on individual taxa and community composition of macroinvertebrates. Macroinvertebrates impact can be through direct effects including abrasion, clogging or indirect effects such as change in substrate composition and food web dynamics. In this study, we developed a theoretical trait-based template for predicting the vulnerability of macroinvertebrates to the effects of elevated sediment loads in freshwater ecosystems. The template was preliminarily evaluated in the Tsitsa River situated in a catchment prone to erosion and instream sediment loads. Our template successfully predicted the vulnerability of macroinvertebrates to sediments, indicating that taxa having external gills, possessing filter-feeding apparatuses, associated with bottom soft sediments and interstitial spaces between stones, were more vulnerable to sediments. Taxa having a combination or at least two of the following traits: a mechanism for tapping atmospheric oxygen, potential for aquatic exit, and high mobility, and free living were less vulnerable. The template holds potential for predictive biomonitoring and water resource management.
- C03 Invertebrates
- S30 The future of trait-based approaches in research and management
- C36 Water Resource Management
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Presenters/Authors
Pindiwe Ntloko
(), Rhodes University, Institute for Water Research, ntloko80@gmail.com;
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