2023 Early Hearing Detection & Intervention Conference
March 5-7, 2023 • Cincinnati, OH
5/21/2019 | 10:15 AM - 10:30 AM | MACROINVERTEBRATE DIVERSITY, COMMUNITY AND TRAIT COMPOSITION OF SELECTED RAMSAR WETLANDS IN SUBTROPICAL SOUTHERN AFRICA | 151 DEF
MACROINVERTEBRATE DIVERSITY, COMMUNITY AND TRAIT COMPOSITION OF SELECTED RAMSAR WETLANDS IN SUBTROPICAL SOUTHERN AFRICA
Wetland macroinvertebrates and biological traits have not been widely studied in South Africa with studies mostly being region-specific. Trait literature is also limited and generally only focusses on selected traits and selected regions. The research aim was to compare macroinvertebrate communities and trait compositions (ten biological traits) of specific Ramsar wetlands in South Africa using a multivariate statistical approach. Macroinvertebrates were collected at five Ramsar wetlands in South Africa from 2014 to 2016 and selected sites included various floodplain, valley bottom and depression systems from different ecoregions. Statistical analyses included diversity indices, beta-diversity, non-metric multidimensional scaling and correspondence analyses using R packages and Canoco Version 5. The overall identified diversity indicated 80 different families and approximately 200 different species from the five Ramsar wetlands. The results indicated that the community composition at each Ramsar wetland was distinct, as was expected. However, the biological traits for the macroinvertebrate community indicated a high similarity between the various Ramsar wetlands, irrespective of ecoregion, wetland type and altitude. This study, one of the largest spatial studies in South Africa, highlighted how macroinvertebrate traits could potentially be used in monitoring Ramsar wetlands across South Africa.
- Invertebrate
- Wetland
- Functional Feeding Groups
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Presenters/Authors
Wynand Malherbe
(), Unit for Environmental Science and Management, North-West University, Wynand.Malherbe@nwu.ac.za;
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Armin Lorenz
(), Aquatic Ecology, University of Duisburg-Essen, armin.lorenz@uni-due.de ;
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Martin Ferreira
(), Unit for Environmental Science and Management, North-West University, Martin.Ferreira@ricardo.com;
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Johan HJ van Vuren
(), Unit for Environmental Science and Management, North-West University, jjvanvuren@gmail.com;
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Victor Wepener
(), Unit for Environmental Science and Management, North-West University, Victor.Wepener@nwu.ac.za;
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Bernd Sures
(), University of Duisburg-Essen, Aquatic Ecology, bernd.sures@uni-due.de;
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Nico Smit
(), Unit for Environmental Science and Management, North-West University, Nico.Smit@nwu.ac.za;
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