The Impact of Anthropogenic Activities on Benthic Macroinvertebrates Community in the Ranggeh River

Abstract

Ranggeh River is one of the inlets of Lake Maninjau (West Sumatra, Indonesia), which has a vital role in supporting the life of native fish. Increasing anthropogenic activities (agriculture and human settlements) around the river can harm benthic macroinvertebrates as natural food for fish. Therefore, this study aimed to analyze and observe water quality changes and their impact on the benthic macroinvertebrate communities in the Ranggeh River. Sampling was conducted from February to August 2019 using the Hess Sampler tool. The results indicate that the anthropogenic impacts around the Ranggeh River on water quality has changed the macroinvertebrate benthic community structures (composition, abundance, and biological index). Furthermore, the Ephemeroptera Plecoptera and Trichoptera (EPT) number of taxa index were superior in reflecting disturbances in the Ranggeh River compared to the Family Biotic Index (FBI) and the Percent Model Affinity (PMA). In conclusion, the anthropogenic effect on the macroinvertebrate community in the Ranggeh River prominently was caused by habitat changes rather than enrichment by nutrients (TN and TP).

Keywords

• ept
• pollution
• agriculture
• embeddedness percentage