D. Jacobsen et A. Encalada, THE MACROINVERTEBRATE FAUNA OF ECUADORIAN HIGHLAND STREAMS IN THE WETAND DRY SEASON, Archiv fur Hydrobiologie, 142(1), 1998, pp. 53-70
The community structure and functional feeding groups of the macroinve
rtebrate fauna were examined in eight Ecuadorian highland streams in t
he wet and the dry season. The abiotic environment of the streams was
highly unstable with great variability in discharge during the wet sea
son, but relatively constant during the short dry season. Overall, the
number of individuals and species were significantly higher in the dr
y season than in the wet season. In all streams the composition of the
fauna differed markedly between the two seasons, but no consistent ch
ange in community structure and proportions of functional feeding grou
ps was found for the eight streams. In both seasons Baetidae, Simuliid
ae, Chironomidae and Elmidae were the four most numerous families. The
equitability of the communities was, however, lower in all streams du
ring the dry season. Collector-browsers were the most numerous organis
ms while filterers, predators and shredders were much less important.
Maximum stream temperature was the single environmental parameter that
best explained the variability in community structure among the strea
ms. Otherwise the fauna was weakly correlated to site characteristics.
The instability of these tropical Andes streams is probably the main
feature structuring the invertebrate fauna. The streams may be alterna
ting between a stochastic community structure during the wet season an
d early successional stages dominated by organisms with a fast growth
and high colonisation capacity during the dry season.