Benthic Macroinvertebrate Fauna of Some High-Altitude Lakes in the Aladağlar Mountains (Niğde)

Abstract

This study was carried out in July and August 2019 as a preliminary study to determine the benthic macroinvertebrate fauna of Karagöl, Çömçe and Yıldız Lakes, which are high-altitude lakes in the Aladağlar mountains. As a result of the examination of the collected macrobenthic fauna, seven speciesbelongingtothreefamiliesfromthreeorders(Diptera,ColeopteraandTrichoptera)inKaragöl Lake, four species belonging to three families from two orders (Diptera, Haplotaxida) in Çömçe Lake, and five species belonging to three families from three orders (Diptera, Trichoptera, Haplotaxida)inYıldızLakeweredetermined.Thetaxadetectedisanewrecordforthestudiedlakes. Shannon-Weaver diversity (H) and Shannon-Evenness density (EH) indices were applied in ordertodeterminethespeciesrichnessofthelakesandthedensityrelationshipsamongthespecies, respectively. Accordingly, the highest diversity was observed in Çömçe Lake with a value of 1.18, followed by Karagöl Lake, and Yıldız Lake with values of 0.87 and 0.83, respectively. While the most balanced distribution was observed in Çömçe Lake with a value of 0.81, this was followed by Yıldız Lake and Karagöl Lake, with values of 0.46 and 0.34, respectively. In order to determine the similaritiesbetweenthestationsaccordingtothedistributionofthedetectedtaxa,atwo-wayclusteringanalysisbasedontheBray-Curtissimilarityindexwasapplied.Accordingly,whilethehighestsimilaritywascalculatedbetweenKaragölLakeandYıldızLake,itwasdeterminedthatthere was no similarity between Yıldız Lake and Çömçe Lake.

Keywords

• benthic macroinvertebrate
• diversity index
• high altitude lake
• aladağlar
• taurus mountains