The microhabitat preferences of water beetles in four rivers in Ourense province, Northwest Spain

Abstract

We analysed the microhabitat preferences of water beetle species in four rivers in Northwest Spain. In each river, we sampled 5 sites with different types of substrate. These sites were characterised in situ according to the predominant material type (macrophytes, moss, pebbles and sand). The occurrence of a substrate preference was verified from a comparative study of species richness and abundance among different microhabitats. The differences in abundance and richness between substrates and in the abundance of each species were tested with an ANOVA. The similarity between microhabitats was tested with non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS), and the correlation between fauna and substrates was verified with a correspondence analysis (CA). We observed different species distribution patterns, and these patterns reflected the microhabitat preference of each species. Both the ecological parameters and the correspondence analysis indicated that the preferred substrate for most of the species was moss, followed by pebbles.