Longitudinal river zonation in the tropics: examples of fish and caddisflies from the endorheic Awash River, Ethiopia
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PRIMARY RESEARCH PAPER
Longitudinal river zonation in the tropics: examples of fish and caddisflies from the endorheic Awash River, Ethiopia Gernot K. Englmaier . Daniel S. Hayes . Paul Meulenbroek . Yonas Terefe . Aschalew Lakew . Genanaw Tesfaye . Herwig Waidbacher Hans Malicky . Alemayehu Wubie . Patrick Leitner . Wolfram Graf
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Received: 28 March 2020 / Revised: 14 August 2020 / Accepted: 29 August 2020 Ó The Author(s) 2020
Abstract Specific concepts of fluvial ecology are well studied in riverine ecosystems of the temperate zone but poorly investigated in the Afrotropical region. Hence, we examined the longitudinal zonation of fish and adult caddisfly (Trichoptera) assemblages in the endorheic Awash River (1,250 km in length), Ethiopia. We expected that species assemblages are structured along environmental gradients, reflecting the pattern of large-scale freshwater ecoregions. We applied multivariate statistical methods to test for Gernot K. Englmaier and Daniel S. Hayes: equally contributing authors.
differences in spatial species assemblage structure and identified characteristic taxa of the observed biocoenoses by indicator species analyses. Fish and caddisfly assemblages were clustered into highland and lowland communities, following the freshwater ecoregions, but separated by an ecotone with highest biodiversity. Moreover, the caddisfly results suggest separating the heterogeneous highlands into a forested and a deforested zone. Surprisingly, the Awash drainage is rather species-poor: only 11 fish (1 endemic, 2 introduced) and 28 caddisfly species (8 new records for Ethiopia) were recorded from the mainstem and its major tributaries. Nevertheless, specialized species characterize the highland forests,
Handling editor: Marcelo S. Moretti G. K. Englmaier (&) Institute of Biology, University of Graz, Universita¨tsplatz 2, 8010 Graz, Austria e-mail: [email protected] D. S. Hayes P. Meulenbroek Y. Terefe H. Waidbacher P. Leitner W. Graf (&) Institute of Hydrobiology and Aquatic Ecosystem Management (IHG), Vienna, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Gregor-Mendel Straße 33, 1180 Vienna, Austria e-mail: [email protected]
Y. Terefe Department of Biological Sciences, Ambo University, P.O. Box 95, Ambo, Ethiopia A. Lakew G. Tesfaye A. Wubie EIAR-National Fisheries and Aquatic Life Research Center, P.O. Box 64, Sebeta, Ethiopia H. Malicky Sonnengasse 13, 3293 Lunz am See, Austria
D. S. Hayes Centro de Estudos Florestais (CEF), Instituto Superior de Agronomia, University of Lisbon, Tapada da Ajuda, 1349-017 Lisbon, Portugal
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Hydrobiologia
whereas the lowlands primarily host geographically widely distributed species. This study showed that a combined approach of fish and caddisflies is a suitable method for assessing regional characteristics of fluvial ecosystems in the tropics. Keywords Africa Biodiversity Biogeography Species assemblages Freshwater ecoregions Indicator species
Introduction In the early t
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