Wednesday, May 28, 2008 - 9:15 AM
384

Impacts of human disturbance, land use and water chemistry on benthic invertebrates in the East River (Dong Jiang), southern China

Yixin Zhang1, Dongsheng Cheng2, Wei Thoe3, Lincoln Fok3, Xuehua Duan4, Huaixiang Liu4, David Dudgeon5, Zhao-Yin Wang4, and Joseph H. W. Lee3. (1) Department of Biology, Texas State University, San Marcos, TX 78666, (2) Department of Water Environment, Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, Beijing, China, (3) Department of Civil Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China, (4) Department of Hydraulic Engineering, Tsinghua University,, Beijing, China, (5) Division of Ecology & Biodiversity, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China

Land use change and aquatic habitat degradation caused by humans have important implications for lotic biodiversity. This is evident in the Pearl River Delta, southern China, where rapid population growth, economic development and urbanization have been associated with changes to streams and rivers caused by sand dredging, over-fishing, pollution, and dam construction.  We examined human impacts on the East River tributary of the Pearl River, a major source of water for Hong Kong and Guangdong Province.  Eleven sites, from upstream tributaries to the lower course of the East River, were surveyed and benthic invertebrates were sampled at each. Forty-one insect families were collected. At upstream sites with relatively low anthropogenic disturbance, taxon diversity was high; it declined downstream to reach a minimum in the main channel of the lower course. Ordination by principal components analysis separated the 11 study sites into 3 groups. Modeling by partial least squares projection onto latent structures showed that taxon diversity was strongly influenced by the intensity of human impacts. Benthic taxon richness and total abundance showed a strong positive correlation with a composite Water Quality Index calculated from 7 water quality parameters. This study confirms the impact of human activities on the ecological integrity of East River, showing it is associated with a loss of biodiversity and probable decline in ecosystem goods and services.  


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