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Variability of benthic macroinvertebrate biomass in two contrasting streams in southern Chile

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Abstract

Organism biomass, a continuous quantity, may be useful for general community and diversity assessment. Body length and biomass of benthic macroinvertebrates from two aquatic environments with different impact levels are determined in this study, classifying organisms using functional and taxonomic characteristics. Lyophilized benthic macroinvertebrate biomass was quantified to test for significant differences between an impacted and reference (less environmental impact) site. Results show that macroinvertebrate assemblages from the less impacted stream had higher average biomass than the assemblage from the perturbed site, and significant differences in biomass of Plecoptera, Trichoptera, predators, filterers and gills breathers were found between sites. The biomass signature was calculated for each analyzed scenario, weighting the presence of all specimens sampled considering the total biomass in a single regression curve equation. The cubic polynomial model had the best fit to the data. More background from theory to practice should be considered in biomonitoring research; hence we propose the application of macroinvertebrate biomass as an additional metric that will help evaluate the ecological status of streams, thus contributing to the knowledge of community-based biomonitoring of benthic macroinvertebrates.

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Acknowledgements

We thank to Dr. Stefan Woelfl for providing the laboratory implements and useful tips and advice, to Systematics Laboratory of the Institute of Marine and Limnological Sciences of the Universidad Austral de Chile. Special thanks to “Escuela de Graduados, Magíster en Recursos Hídricos”, Science Faculty, Universidad Austral

de Chile.

Funding

This work was supported by the Agencia Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo (ANID) Becas CONICYT Magister/2019—22190521.

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  1. Facultad de Ciencias, Instituto de Ciencias Marinas y Limnológicas, Universidad Austral de Chile, Campus Isla Teja, Av. Rector Eduardo Morales Miranda 23, Valdivia, Chile

    Jorge Machuca-Sepúlveda, Pablo Fierro & Jorge Nimptsch

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  1. Jorge Machuca-Sepúlveda
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JM-S performed the analytic calculations. JM-S, PF, JN designed the study, analyzed the results, and co-drafted the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Jorge Machuca-Sepúlveda or Jorge Nimptsch.

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Machuca-Sepúlveda, J., Fierro, P. & Nimptsch, J. Variability of benthic macroinvertebrate biomass in two contrasting streams in southern Chile. Hydrobiologia 849, 641–660 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-021-04731-6

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