Diversity, distribution and habitat requirements of aquatic insect communities in tropical mountain streams (South-eastern Guinea, West Africa)
Considering that knowledge of the biodiversity of a region is the first step toward its conservation and given the paucity of studies on aquatic insects from the Simandou streams, the diversity of these communities was assessed. Overall, 130 taxa belonging to 52 families and eight orders were recorded. Multivariate analyses gathered sites into three clusters in regard to aquatic insect composition. The highest taxonomic richness was registered in cluster that contained a mixture of upland and lowland sites, the latter remained minimally disturbed. These sites could be considered as reference sites in studies for assessing water quality. Generalized additive models (GAMs) calculated for the most frequent taxa showed that water temperature, dissolved oxygen, conductivity and pH were the incorporated explanatory variables.