The benthic macroinvertebrate community in Caribbean Costa Rican streams and the effect of two sampling methods.
Abstract: The benthic macroinvertebrate
community draining the south Caribbean coast of Costa Rica was studied
to determine community structure and composition through time (September
1995-May 1996), the effect of vegetation cover on drainage area (forest
vs. disturbed sites), and to compare two sampling methods: Surber and kitchen
sieve. Five sites, predominantly with a forest cover drainage area,
show abundances (mean=157.60 indivs./m2) and taxa richness (mean=9.65
spp./m2) significantly higher than those found in the disturbed
drainage areas ( means=82.08 and 4.62 respectively). All sites have
high community heterogeneity indices (>0.80) which together with the low
similarity indices (<0.40) between sampling times indicate a macroinvertebrate
community subject to frequent disturbance events and diminish species permanence
in the aquatic system. The kitchen sieve sampling method with 10
replicates (4000cm2) is significantly more effective in sampling
the community in terms of abundance (mean=165.10) than the traditional
Surber sampler (mean=83.03) using three replicates (3333 cm2).
Both are equally effective in the number of taxa collected, although each
device captures different taxa. The species similarity between the
Surber and the sieve method ranges between 0.1379 to 0.7619 when combining
all sampling times.
Paaby, P., A. Ramirez, and C.M Pringle. 1998. The benthic macroinvertebrate community in Caribbean Costa Rican streams and the effect of two sampling methods. Revista de Biologia Tropical 46:185-199.
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