Intl. J. of Mol. Evol. and Biodivers. 2015, Vol. 5, No. 5, 1-9
1
Research Report Open Access
Adopting Workable Methods for StreamWater Quality Monitoring in Zambia
Sintumfya J.
Siachoono S.M.
Chama L.
b
School of Natural Resources, Department of Zoology and Aquatic Sciences, Copperbelt University, P O Box 21692, Kitwe, Zambia
Corresponding author email:
International Journal of Molecular Evolution and Biodiversity, 2015, Vol.5, No.5 doi: 10.5376/ijmeb.2015.05.0005
Received: 10 Jun., 2014
Accepted: 16 Jul., 2015
Published: 26 Aug., 2015
© 2015 Sintumfya et al., This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use,
distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Preferred citation for this article:
Sintumfya J., Siachoono S.M., and Chama L., 2015, Adopting Workable Methods for Stream Water Quality Monitoring in Zambia,
International Journal of
Molecular Evolution and Biodiversity, Vol.5, No.5, 1-9
(doi
Abstract
Invertebrates are among the most ubiquitous and diverse organisms that play a central ecological role in many freshwater
ecosystems. However, the diversity and community composition of these organisms are affected by many physical, chemical and
biological factors which are introduced naturally or by human (anthropogenic) activities into the stream systems. A study was
conducted to assess the impact of water quality on invertebrate species abundance, diversity and richness in the Mwekera stream in
Kitwe district on the Copperbelt Province in Zambia. The study also examined the potential use of invertebrates as indicators of
water quality using the South African scoring system version 5 (SASS 5) as a standard. The invertebrate community of the stream
was studied to Order level of taxonomy in the dry season from July to August 2014. Across the sampling sites, a total of 106
invertebrate individuals belonging to 12 Orders were collected. The Shannon-Wiener
diversity Index
was calculated in relation to
four water quality parameters namely, pH, conductivity, redox and temperature.
The study revealed that species diversity along the stream was significantly different (
p
0.05) between successive sites. However,
conductivity and pH among the physico-chemical parameters indicated significant variation of mean values (
p
<0.05) between sites.
With the exception of conductivity, pH and temperature, no significant relationship (
p
>0.05) was found between diversity and redox.
Overall, water quality seemed to have had effect on species diversity, abundance and richness of the invertebrate community which
therefore can be used as bio-indicators to aquatic health.
Keywords
Physico-chemical; pH, Mini-SASS; ZISS protocol; Conductivity; Redox
Background
Invertebrates are one of the major biota in streams and
are composed mainly of aquatic insects, crustaceans,
and mollusks among others. These organisms are the
link between primary food sources (algae, microorg-
anisms, and detritus) and their predators (fish) in a
stream food web (Cummins, 1983). In lotic systems,
invertebrates are ubiquitous, energetically essential
primary consumers that serve as conduits to higher
and lower trophic levels (Wallace and Webster, 1996).
They form an important component of the trophic
structure of freshwater ecosystems since they play an
important role in the food webs (Bryne and Dates,
1997) and stimulate nutrient cycling by reducing the
size of organic particles. These aquatic organisms are
affected by various water quality parameters that can
be organized hierarchically according to the spatial
scale of the river network within landscapes (Poff ars
(temperature, pH, conductivity, and redox) have been
considered to be the primary drivers of riverine
ecosystems, and have become a fundamental part of
ecological information for riverine ecosystems (Allan,
1995). The influence of these physico-chemical
attributes on the structure and composition of
invertebrate communities has been a dominant theme
in aquatic ecology (Poff and Allan, 1995). Because
water quality is such an important factor influencing
the distribution and abundance of invertebrates,
ecologists all over the world are using invertebrates to
give an early warning to possible harm of the water
resources (Chapman, 1996).
The Mwekera stream is one of the most important
perennial streams on the Copperbelt province. The
stream supplies water to the National Aquaculture
Research Development Centre (NARDC), Zambia
