Macroinvertebrate have been used as bioindicators for integrative measurement of ecosystem health in rivers due to their advantages of limited mobility and large-scale applicability,and a relatively long lifespan and distribution throughout the rivers as compared with water physicochemical parameters,and therefore macroinvertebrate communities are one of the most important aquatic groups selected by the Water Framework Directive in European (European Commission,2000) for evaluating the biological integrity of the ecological status process.However,using macroinvertebrate assemblages to assess river health is still in its infancy stage in China.The objectives of this work were to describe the macroinvertebrate characteristics,identify their linkages with the physicochemical measures,and assess stream segment health conditions in the Qinghe river basin,which is located in the northeast of Liaoning province,a tributary of Liaohe river basin in northeastern China,with a 5674.28 km2 watershed area,a total river length of 217 km,an average annual precipitation of 692 mm and annual average temperature of 6.5 ℃.
Qinghe river macroinvertebrates environmental assessment biodiversity water quality
Fayun LI Yanjie WANG Zhiping FAN Zhihui CHENG Cheng HU Lizhu WANG
Institute of Eco-environmental Sciences,Liaoning Shihua University,Fushun,113001 China;School of Env Institute of Eco-environmental Sciences,Liaoning Shihua University,Fushun,113001 China;Liaoning Key Institute of Eco-environmental Sciences,Liaoning Shihua University,Fushun,113001 China School of Environmental Science,Liaoning University,Shenyang,110036 China;Liaoning Key Laboratory of Liaoning Academy of Environmental Sciences,Shenyang,110031 China Institute for Fisheries Research,Michigan Department of Natural Resources and University of Michigan