Species abundance distribution of benthic chironomids and other macroinvertebrates across different levels of pollution in streams

¹ Department of Biological Sciences, Pusan National University, Busan (Pusan) 609-735, Republic of Korea
² West Sea Fisheries Research Institute, Incheon 400-420, Republic of Korea
³ Department of Biology, Kyung Hee University, Dongdaemun, Seoul 130-701, Republic of Korea

Corresponding author: tschon@pusan.ac.kr

Received: 22 October 2009
Accepted: 4 November 2009

Abstract

Chironomid assemblages collected from seven different streams in South Korea were investigated. The subfamily composition of chironomids was clearly differentiated accross different levels of organic pollution. Species abundance distributions (SADs) of chironomid communities were compared with the total macroinvertebrate communities across different levels of pollution. The number of species with minimal range of abundance was lower in SADs for chironomid communities compared with total communities. The log normal distribution was accepted for both total and chironomid communities, while the geometric series was relatively more suitable for chironomids and the log series were more fitted to total communities. The a values in the log normal distribution increased in chironomid communities across different levels of pollution, while γ values increased at the polluted sites for both chironomid and total communities. In the Power law analysis, the parameter decreased in chironomid communities. The dominance decay model was more fitted to chironomid communities in clean conditions while random fraction and assortment models were more suitable for the polluted sites.