Diatom community structure in relation to environmental factors in human influenced rivers and streams in tropical Africa

Tebkew Shibabaw, Abebe Beyene, Aymere Awoke, Mulat Tirfie, Muluken Azage, Ludwig Triest

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

16 Scopus citations

Abstract

The contemporaneous effect of natural and anthropogenic factors involved in a watershed contribution to the seasonal and spatial variation of diatom community composition is widely discussed in the scientific literature. Yet, there is a paucity of scientific evidence indicating the effect of these factors on diatoms in tropical African regions characterized by distinct dry and wet seasons and season associated human activities like rainfed agriculture are commonly practiced. We applied multivariate techniques to determine the spatio-temporal drivers of diatom assemblage and diatom species richness in human influenced rivers and streams in Ethiopia. We simultaneously collected water and diatom samples from 24 sampling points during the wet (July) and dry (February) seasons. Both water and diatom samples were processed following standard procedures. We identified 169 species belonging to 45 genera in the studied lotic systems. We found that both season and land use factors were important in defining diatom composition (PERMANOVA, p
Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)e0246043
JournalPLOS ONE
Volume16
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 3 2021

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