Diversity and Distribution of Aquatic Macroinvertebrates in Fae Dam Lake (South-West of Cote d'Ivoire)

An ecological study was done on Fae Lake. Its main objective was to inventory aquatic macroinvertebrates and to identify abiotic parameters that structure these stands. For this purpose, six sites were sampled during eight campaigns from November 2017 to October 2018. Aquatic macroinvertebrates were collected using a hand net and a Van Veen grab. Environmental variables were recorded also. Water was collected from each sampling site for nutrient (phosphorus, ammonium and nitrate) analysis in laboratory. In total 123 taxa have been inventoried and subdivided into 6 classes (Insecta, Gasteropoda, Acheata, Bivalvia, Malacostraca and Arachnida), 16 orders and 54 families. The most diversified class was Insecta with 85.37% of the taxa inventoried. Among the insects found, most diverse order was Odonata (22 taxa, 5 families) followed Coleoptera (21 taxa, 8 families) Hemiptera (18 taxa, 9 families) and Diptera (16 taxa, 6 families). Although higher values of rarefied richness, Shannon index and evenness were obtained in the site S6, significant differences between the six sites were not observed. Focused Principal Component Analysis revealed that main taxa abundances was influenced by environmental variables such as nitrate, turbidity, conductivity and temperature. According to the results obtained, Fae Lake is still less disturbed.