Tuesday, June 5, 2007 - 10:15 AM
148

Current status of biodiversity and biomonitoring of benthic macroinvertebrates in Vietnam

Van Vinh Nguyen, Hanoi University of Science, Hanoi, 84-4, Vietnam and Y.J. Bae, Department of Biology, Seoul Women's University, Seoul, 139-774, South Korea.

Vietnam is situated in the north-south axis of tropical Southeast Asia. Its high average humidity, rainfall, annual cumulative temperature, and multifarious surface help to form diverse tropical ecosystems. Approximately 2400 rivers and streams over 10 km long are present throughout the country, which provide diverse habitats for benthic macroinvertebrates. Scattered and fragmented investigations conducted in difference ecological areas of Vietnam resulted in the recognition of major groups of freshwater benthic macroinvertebrates as follows: 39 species and 14 families of Polychaeta, 55 species and 3 families of Oligochaeta, 18 species and 3 families of Hirudinea, 80 species and 15 families of Gastropoda, 88 species and 6 families of Bivalvia, 198 species and 30 families of Crustacea, and 475 species and 86 families of Insecta (aquatic insects). Methods for biomonitoring of rivers and streams using benthic macroinvertebrate communities have been introduced recently in Vietnam. A database of macroinvertebrate communities in relation to water quality and habitat environmental factors has been built. Currently, rapid biological assessment techniques, such as a modified BMWP score, have been invented and used in biomonitoring Vietnamese streams. Manuals of field investigation techniques for biological assessment have been published.

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