Description
This resource provides the abundance of macroinvertebrates in Lake Wamala. Data was collected in sites with varying land degradation levels.
Data Records
The data in this occurrence resource has been published as a Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A), which is a standardized format for sharing biodiversity data as a set of one or more data tables. The core data table contains 342 records.
This IPT archives the data and thus serves as the data repository. The data and resource metadata are available for download in the downloads section. The versions table lists other versions of the resource that have been made publicly available and allows tracking changes made to the resource over time.
Versions
The table below shows only published versions of the resource that are publicly accessible.
How to cite
Researchers should cite this work as follows:
Pabire W G, Egessa R (2020): Abundance of macroinvertebrates in sites with varying degradation levels in Lake Wamala. v1.1. National Fisheries Resources Research Institute. Dataset/Occurrence. http://ipt-uganda.gbif.fr/resource?r=macro-invertebrates_wamala&v=1.1
Rights
Researchers should respect the following rights statement:
The publisher and rights holder of this work is National Fisheries Resources Research Institute. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC-BY-NC 4.0) License.
GBIF Registration
This resource has been registered with GBIF, and assigned the following GBIF UUID: b34036fa-f8de-4bbe-b2a2-f90ba0a234fd. National Fisheries Resources Research Institute publishes this resource, and is itself registered in GBIF as a data publisher endorsed by GBIF Uganda.
Keywords
Occurrence; Uganda; Lake Wamala; Macro-invertebrates; Degradation; Observation
Contacts
- Originator
- Originator
- Metadata Provider ●
- User ●
- Point Of Contact
- Point Of Contact
Geographic Coverage
The resource covers Lake Wamala. The lake is a UNEP designated environmental change hotspot (https://na.unep.net/atlas/webatlas.php?id=391).
| Bounding Coordinates | South West [0.221, 31.74], North East [0.431, 32.038] |
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Taxonomic Coverage
No Description available
| Class | Hirudinea, Oligochaeta |
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| Order | Podocopa |
| Family | Ceratopogonidae, Chironomidae, Libellulidae, Libellulidae |
| Genus | Ablabesmyia, Baetis, Caenis, Chaoborus, Chironomus, Clinotanypus, Cloeon, Ephemerythus, Petrophila, Procladius, Tanypus |
| Species | Povilla adusta |
Temporal Coverage
| Formation Period | 2016-2017 |
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Project Data
Land use and land-use change influence aquatic ecosystem health, ultimately impacting fish production and livelihoods of fishery-dependent communities. This project aimed at generating knowledge to guide effective investments in interventions to promote sustainable land management practices in the Lake Victoria Crescent agro-ecological zone. This was envisaged to limit the undesirable influence of unsustainable land management practices on the Lake Environment and biotic components, contributing to the sustainability of livelihoods.
| Title | Promoting Sustainable Catchment Management Practices to Improve the Aquatic Ecosystem Health and Livelihoods on Lake Wamala |
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| Funding | The project was supported by the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) through its funding provided to the Government of Uganda. |
| Study Area Description | The project was implemented on Lake Wamala. Lake Wamala is an environmental change hotspot within the Lake Victoria watershed. The lakes has an area of 250 sq. km, an average depth of 5m and a catchment of ≈2000 sq. km. The catchment is dominated by croplands that have increased since the 1990s at the expense of a native land cover. |
| Design Description | The aim of the project was to examine how land-use practices adjacent to the lake influence aquatic fauna. Occurrence and abundance were examined for benthic macroinvertebrate communities in sites with different levels of land degradation. The hypothesis was that different levels of land degradation are associated with different physical and chemical water conditions which in turn influence the structure of benthic macroinvertebrate communities. |
The personnel involved in the project:
- Principal Investigator
Sampling Methods
At each site and sampling stations, benthic macroinvertebrates were collected using a Ponar grab (238 cm2 open-jaw area). Three vertical hauls of sediment at each sampling station were taken and then pooled into a composite. Each composite sample was then sieved through a 400µm nitex mesh to concentrate the sample. All the samples were placed in clean, labeled sample bottles and preserved with 5% sugar formalin solution for taxonomic identification and enumeration in the laboratory. In the laboratory, the formalin-fixed benthic macroinvertebrate samples were rinsed through tap water to remove preservatives before subsampling and sorting of the organisms. All the animals were separated, counted, and identified to the smallest taxonomic level possible under a dissecting microscope following taxonomic keys by Mandahl-Barth (1954), Pennak (1953) and Merritt and Cummins (1997). Numerical abundance (individuals per square meter, Ind.m-2) was then calculated for each taxon.
| Study Extent | The study was conducted between October 2016 and October 2017 in sites with different levels of land degradation. Papyrus was the common vegetation adjacent to water and the different sites of the lake are surrounded by different thicknesses of this vegetation although, in some sites, it has been cleared up to the lake’s shoreline. Seven sampling sites were selected for the study. The sites were categorized into three as follows: (1) Less degraded sites (2) Degraded sites, and (3) Riverine sites, based on the level of adjacent land degradation, the thickness of the shoreline vegetation and location near the river mouth. Within each site, three sampling stations were established at Shoreline, 250 m and 500 m in an inshore-offshore direction. |
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| Quality Control | The samples were immediately processed in the field and treated with formalin to keep the organisms of interest intact. To avoid loss of organisms during sample processing, appropriate mesh sizes during sieving. Appropriate taxonomic keys were used. |
Method step description:
- Collection of the macroinvertebrates: In the field, sediment samples were collected using a Ponar grab with an open jaw surface area of 238 cm2. At each site, three sediment samples were obtained. The three samples were mixed and concentrated to form one composite sample for each site.
- Preserving the samples: The composite sample for each site was separately preserved in 5% formalin to maintain the organisms in good condition prior to analysis in the laboratory.
- Identification of macroinvertebrates: In the laboratory, formalin was rinsed off from each sample and placed in white flat-bottomed trays. Using pairs of forceps, all benthic macroinvertebrates were sorted from the sediment and the individual taxa identified to the lowest possible taxonomic level using appropriate identification keys and a dissecting binocular microscope at 4x 25 magnification.
Bibliographic Citations
- Mendahl-Barth, G. (1954). The Freshwater Mollusks of Uganda and Adjacent Territories. Annls Mus. r. Congo Belge, 8°, Zoology, 32: 1–206.
- Merritt, R. W., & Cummins, K. W. (1997). An introduction to the aquatic insects of North America (3rd ed.). Dubuque: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Co. 720 Pg.
- Pennak, R.W. (1953). Fresh-water Invertebrates of the United States. John Wiley & Sons, New York. 769pg.
Additional Metadata
| Alternative Identifiers | b34036fa-f8de-4bbe-b2a2-f90ba0a234fd |
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| http://ipt-uganda.gbif.fr/resource?r=macro-invertebrates_wamala |