Fauna of Macroinvertebrates and Composition of Functional Feeding Groups about the Aquatic Insects to Microhabitats from the Geum River, Korea

Abstract

The main objective of this study is to find out the fauna of macroinvertebrate and composition of functional feeding groups about the aquatic insects to microhabitat from the Geum River, Korea. This study is based on investigations of the main channel of Geum River, Korea which is upstream of Daecheong Dam, and carried out in the spring and autumn of 2004. Collections from all the sites were 39,532 individuals, 130 species, 54 families, 16 orders, 7 classes, and 4 phyla of macroinvertebrates. Aquatic insects were composed of 90.76% (118 species) and 98.88% (39,088 individuals) of all the identified species. Among the microhabitats, the riffles were collected 26,293 individuals and 92 species, and the runs were collected 12,329 individuals and 89 species. Finally, the pools were collected 494 individuals and 41 species. In this survey, the proportions of functional feeding groups of aquatic insects were as follows (percent of identified): predators 37.65%, gathering-collectors 23.53%, scrapers 16.47%, filtering-collectors 11.76%, shredders 9.41% and plant-piercers 1.18%. Also, the functional feeding groups were sorted according to microhabitat, in the riffles 30.65% were predators and 29.03% were gathering-collectors; in the run 30.3% were predators, and 28.79% were gathering-collectors; while in the pools 36.67% were predators, and 30.0% were gathering-collectors. In all microhabitats, gathering collectors and predators were predominant, because most of the survey sites are in the midstream. Also, the scrapers were shown more frequently in the riffle (17.74%) and run (18.18 %) than pool (13.13%), the filtering-collectors were shown more frequently in the riffle (14.52%) and the run (12.12%) than the pool (6.67%), and the plant-piercers (3.33%) were found only in pools. But the shredders weren't a difference in the run (10.61%), the pool (10.0%) and the riffle (8.06%), because of the characteristic. Microhabitats (riffle and run) are much alike in composition ratio of functional feeding groups and pool was very lower out of composition ratio in microhabitats. But riffle is very important than run, because most of individual occur in streams. Besides, pool was diverse to composition ratios, considering the number of individuals.