International Journal of Research in Environmental Studies
ISSN: 2059-1977
Vol. 8(1), pp. 1-13, January 2021
doi.org/10.33500/ijres.2021.08.001

Diversity and structure of benthic macroinvertebrates community in relation to environmental variables in Lake Ehuikro, Côte d’Ivoire

Fato Edouard Motchié¹, Yao Aristide Konan¹*, Kouakou Barthélemy Koffi², N’Doua Raphaël Etilé¹ and Bi Gouli Gooré¹

¹Laboratoire des milieux Naturels et de conservation de la Biodiversité, UFR Biosciences, Université Félix Houphouët-Boigny, 22 BP 582 Abidjan 22, Côte d’Ivoire.
²Département des Sciences et Technologie, Ecole Normale Supérieure, 08 BP 10 Abidjan 08, Côte d’Ivoire.

*To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: ariskoya@yahoo.fr.

Received 06 September, 2020; Received in revised form 09 November, 2020; Accepted 13 November, 2020.

Abstract

Keywords:
Bongouanou, Physico-chemical parameters, Substrate texture, Correlation, Relative abundance.

Lake Ehuikro is used to supply drinking water to Bongouanou City. Some human activities around the lake are established and may have an effect on water quality and aquatic life. This study was conducted to describe for the first time the diversity and the structure of macro-invertebrate communities in this area. Physico-chemical parameters were measured monthly in three sampling sites and the benthic macro-invertebrates was collected using a Van Veen grab on a total area of 0.5 m² per sample. Principal component analysis showed a clear pattern of separation of these three sampling sites according to the substrate type: gravel-mud, sand-gravel and sand in E1, E2 and E3 stations, respectively. A total of 3285 aquatic macro-invertebrates belonging 52 taxa, were recorded and the most dominant taxa were Baetis sp. (19.85%) and Tubifex sp. (11.57%). Multivariate statistical analysis revealed significant differences between the community structure of E1 and E2 samples: the first sample was dominated by 7 taxa including Tubifex sp. and Melanoides tuberculata while the second by 13 species. The Shannon diversity indices showed high value in lake (3.10) reflecting moderately polluted conditions. Significant correlations between Tubifex sp., Biomphalaria pfeifferi, M. tuberculata and depth, transparency, substrate texture and macrophyte (MAC) were found. The present study revealed that the benthic fauna of the lake Ehuikro dominated by sensitive taxa is polluted. These findings provide valuable information that can be used to establish biotic indices to monitor the human disturbance effect on water quality of Lake Ehuikro.