Effects of grazing on taxonomic and functional diversity of benthic macroinvertebrates of six tributary streams of the eastern shore of Lake Hövsgöl, Mongolia
Oyunchuluun Yadamsuren, Suvdtsetseg Chuluunbat, Sanaa Enkhtaivan, Barbara Hayford and Clyde Goulden
Overgrazing is one of the major land-use impacts in Mongolia leading to habitat degradation and subsequent impairment of biological diversity. This study examined macroinvertebrate diversity among sites with different grazing intensities in Hövsgöl, Mongolia, to test whether the taxonomic and functional structure of the macroinvertebrate community differs among streams with different grazing intensity. The 14 551 total identified specimens comprised 78 genera in 27 macroinvertebrate families from the 6 study streams. Exponential Shannon index and weighted functional diversity were significantly higher in low grazing sites than in moderate and high grazing sites; no significant difference was found between moderate to high grazing intensity. Macroinvertebrate community composition was not significantly different between low and moderate or low and high grazing intensity sites. SIMPER analysis revealed the taxon with the highest contribution to dissimilarity among the levels of grazing. Thirteen trait categories from 8 traits differed significantly between sites with varying grazing pressure. The community-weighted means for 4 of these traits were filtered by high grazing intensity: dissemination, resistant form, current velocity, and saprobity. Although the other 4 traits differed significantly, they did not respond directly to grazing intensity. Further knowledge of traits, especially regarding physiological capabilities, is needed to better understand macroinvertebrate/environment relationships, but overall, these findings suggest that macroinvertebrate diversity components were affected by grazing.
Effects of grazing on taxonomic and functional diversity of benthic macroinvertebrates of six tributary streams of the eastern shore of Lake Hövsgöl, Mongolia
Creators
Oyunchuluun Yadamsuren - Mongolian National University of Education
Suvdtsetseg Chuluunbat - Mongolian National University of Education
Sanaa Enkhtaivan - Ministry of Environment and Tourism
Barbara Hayford - Rhithron Associates, Inc
Clyde Goulden - Drexel University
Publication Details
Inland waters (Print), v 12(4), pp 526-538
Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Resource Type
Journal article
Language
English
Academic Unit
Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University
Web of Science ID
WOS:000876876500001
Scopus ID
2-s2.0-85141126941
Other Identifier
991019350662604721
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