Publications scientifiques
Joséphine Kengne Fotsing* (Auteur correspondant)
Autres affiliations : Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique · Université de Lille
Albin Meyer
Autres affiliations : Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique · Institut National de Recherche pour l'Agriculture, l'Alimentation et l'Environnement · Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire des Environnements Continentaux · Université de Lorraine
Alain Leprêtre
Autres affiliations : Université de Lille
Philippe Usseglio‐Polatera
Autres affiliations : Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire des Environnements Continentaux · Université de Lorraine
Water
Tropical rivers are strongly influenced by stormwaters, pollutants and agro-pastoral activities. These systems are no longer able to maintain their native biota. Therefore, it seems important to understand how biological assemblages are driven by environmental gradients at different spatial scales. However, information on the relationships between the distribution of aquatic macroinvertebrates and environmental variables remains scarce in Cameroon. To improve our knowledge on the drivers of such distributions, a study was carried out at 11 contrasted sites from three catchments located in West Cameroon. This study aimed at understanding the spatio-temporal variations of 19 taxonomic metrics calculated for the benthic macroinvertebrate assemblages of these sites sampled during 13 months, concurrently with physico-chemical analyses of water quality. Two hundred and twelve taxa were caught. Diptera(rf-S), Shannon-Wiener diversity, 1–GOLD, total richness, Pielou evenness and Heteroptera(rf-S) revealed their high ability to respond to anthropogenic pressures or disturbances. Conductivity, water temperature, dissolved oxygen, nitrates, total hardness and alkalinity were identified as the main physico-chemical drivers of the taxonomic structure of benthic assemblages. These results will allow further exploration of the implementation of a tool for monitoring the ecological quality of West Cameroon rivers.
