Diversity and Species Composition of the Macrobenthic Invertebrates in Sürgü Stream (Malatya, Turkey)

Abstract

The study was carried out on Sürgü Stream, located in Malatya Province (Turkey), and aimed to determine the diversity and species composition of macrobenthic invertebrates. Six stations were determined on the stream and macrobenthic invertebrates were taken seasonally. As a result, 34 taxa belonging to five classes were detected; one of which belongs to Hirudinea, one of which belong to Arachnida, three to Gastropoda, five to Malacostraca and 24 to Insecta classes. Insecta was the most dominant group among the determined taxa. The Shannon Weaver Diversity Index and the Simpson Index showed that the lowest species diversity was observed at the third station while the highest species diversity was found at the second station. Also, UPGMA algorithm was used to show possible clustering relationships among the seven stations based on organisms. According to UPGMA analysis, the highest similarity value was observed between the first and second stations (87%), while the lowest similarity value was found between the second and fourth stations (13%). To date, there is no study on the determination of macrobenthic invertebrate fauna of Sürgü Stream. Therefore, all the identified taxa have been recorded for the first time for the study area.

Keywords

• macrobenthic invertebrates
• species diversity
• sürgü stream
• malatya