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Distribution of Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, and Trichoptera assemblages in relation to environmental variables in headwater streams of Mongolia

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Abstract

Effects of stream environmental variables on the distribution and abundance of Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera and Trichoptera (EPT) assemblages in the headwaters of rivers and streams of Mongolia were investigated in this broad scale survey aimed to provide a baseline for future research and management of the country’s aquatic ecosystems. The survey was carried out in the first-, second- and third-order streams of 80 rivers selected from the three main watersheds of Mongolia, namely the Arctic Ocean Basin (AOB), Pacific Ocean Basin (POB) and Central Asian Internal Basin (CAIB). We sampled larvae of EPT by kick and d-nets from the headwater sites during summers of 2007–2009. Chemical and hydrological variables of the sites were measured, and habitat of those sites was assessed. We recorded 89 taxa belonging to 34 families of EPT orders during the survey. The family Baetidae (Ephemeroptera) was the dominant taxon among all sites. Taxon richness was higher in the POB and AOB than CAIB, while total EPT abundance was higher in the CAIB. Significant differences in the community variables, such as taxon richness, Shannon’s diversity index and evenness of EPT assemblages were observed among the basins. Results of canonical correspondence analysis suggested that altitude, dissolved oxygen, order and width of streams were the most important factors explaining the variability in EPT larval distribution in the headwater streams in Mongolia.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to express our sincere thanks to Mr. William Infante, Ms. Rebecca Darling, Mrs. Shelagh Rosenthal and other staff of the Asia Foundation of Mongolia, who supported this study both professionally and logistically. Dashdondog Narangarvuu would like to thank Puntsag Tamir, Dashzeveg Batkhuu, and Shar Usukhbayar for their contributions and providing water chemistry, hydrology, and habitat assessment data, to Nyamsuren Odchimeg, Nyamjav Indra, Batsaikhan Oyunbat, and Ganbat Undralbat for helping in the sampling and sorting of macroinvertebrates, to Ariuntsetseg Lkhagva for her valuable advice on data analysis, and to Badam Barkhas for her help with the Geographic Information Systems analysis. We also would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their very helpful comments. This research was made possible by funding provided by the Royal Netherlands Embassy to the Asia Foundation’s Securing Our Future Project and its “Mongolian Watershed Monitoring Network” program implemented in 2007–2009.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Entomology, College of Bio-Resource and Agriculture, National Taiwan University, Taipei, 106, Taiwan, ROC

    Dashdondog Narangarvuu & Ping-Shih Yang

  2. Department of Ecology, School of Biology and Biotechnology, National University of Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar, 210646, Mongolia

    Dashdondog Narangarvuu & Bazartseren Boldgiv

  3. Ecology Education Center, National University of Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar, 210646, Mongolia

    Jargalsaikhan Oyunbileg

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  1. Dashdondog Narangarvuu
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  2. Jargalsaikhan Oyunbileg
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  3. Ping-Shih Yang
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  4. Bazartseren Boldgiv
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Correspondence to Dashdondog Narangarvuu or Bazartseren Boldgiv.

Appendices

Appendix 1

See Table 4.

Table 4 Relative abundance of EPT among the three basins (in percent)
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Appendix 2

See Table 5.

Table 5 List of the streams, basins, stream orders, and community parameters
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Narangarvuu, D., Oyunbileg, J., Yang, PS. et al. Distribution of Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, and Trichoptera assemblages in relation to environmental variables in headwater streams of Mongolia. Environ Earth Sci 73, 835–847 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-013-2968-9

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