Concordance between Ephemeroptera and Trichoptera assemblage in streams from Cerrado – Amazonia transition

¹ Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal do Pará, Rua Augusto Correia, no 1 Bairro Guamá, 66.075-110 Belém, PA, Brazil
² Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ecologia e Evolução, Universidade Federal de Goiás, Caixa Postal 24.241, 74.690-970 Goiânia, GO, Brazil
³ Programa de Pós-Graduação em Zoologia, Universidade Federal do Pará, Rua Augusto Correia, no 1 Bairro Guamá, 66.075-110 Belém, PA, Brazil
⁴ Universidade de Brasília, Campus de Planaltina (FUP), Área Universitária 1, Vila Nossa Senhora de Fátima, 73.340-710 Planaltina, DF, Brazil
⁵ Departamento de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade do Estado de Mato Grosso, Caixa Postal 08, 78.690-000 Nova Xavantina, Mato Grosso, Brazil

^* Corresponding author: leandrojuen@ufpa.br

Received: 11 December 2012
Accepted: 22 April 2013

Abstract

We evaluated the concordance between assemblages of Ephemeroptera and Trichoptera to verify if they respond similarly to environmental gradients in the basin of Suiá-Missu river in Mato Grosso, central Brazil. We tested the predictions that: (i) the distributional pattern of mayfly and caddisfly larvae is concordant along the spatial and (ii) environmental variation along the basin, and if (iii) taxa are concordant between themselves along the seasons and with the environmental gradients disregarding the seasons of the year. We found a concordance between species composition of mayfly and caddisfly in fall-water and rainy period, when analyzed separately by each season. The concordance between environmental variables and the two taxa analyzed separately also was concordant, but only on the fall-water season. Finally, we found congruence when both analyzed groups disregarded the temporal effect, but it was less representative than when we consider the seasons variation. Our results suggest that the hydrological cycle could be a driver of changes in species composition of mayflies and caddisflies.