Abstract

The application of multivariate analysis of the community structure of macrobenthos to water environment quality monitoring at a river in the Pearl river Delta, China

Author(s): Feng Li, Yan-Yan Lang, Xiang-Yun Zeng, Kai-Xuan Shen, Jun-Yong Lin, Dui-Lin Wu, Zhi Tan, Jia-YuYang

A representative polluted river in Pearl River Delta has been selected. The samples of macrobenthos were collected and analyzed. The biological monitoring data were analyzed by Shannon-Wiener diversity index (SWI), the multivariate analysis (combining two methods of MDS and Cluster analysis), and the analysis results of themwere compared. The investigation results show there are rare species in the study area; furthermore the dominants were mainly contributed by the two pollution indicator species, Limnodrilus hoffmeisteri and Branchiura sowerbyi. Analytical results indicated that the community structure of macrobenthos was highly associated with the condition ofwater environment in the river. The results of SWI cannot effectively reflect the difference of pollution status of various stations in the polluted river; despite the presence of some problems, multivariate analysismethod ismore suitable than SWI as far as information mining of biological monitoring in the polluted river is concerned.