Page 27 - IPCoSME 2021

1 INTERNATIONAL POSTGRADUATE CONFERENCE ON SCIENCE AND MARINE ENVIRONMENT 2021
st
(IPCoSME 2021)
“Environmental Sustainability Enhancement Through the Collaboration of Sciences”

RB-04

ESTIMATING FAMILY RICHNESS OF AQUATIC INSECTS IN SELECTED
FEEDER STREAMS OF TASIK KENYIR AND THEIR RELATIONSHIP WITH

THE WATER PARAMETERS

1
PANG SUK-MEI , WAHIZATUL AFZAN AZMI and AMIRRUDIN AHMAD 1.2, *
1

1 Biodiversity and Ecology Research Group, Faculty of Science and Marine Environment,
Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, 21030 Kuala Nerus, Terengganu, Malaysia.
2 Terrestrial Biodiversity and Aquatic Research, Institute of Tropical Biodiversity and
Sustainable Development, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, 21030 Kuala Nerus, Terengganu,
Malaysia.

*Corresponding author email: amirrudin@umt.edu.my

Abstract: Aquatic insects are the most prominent organisms used as bioindicator in freshwater
system due to their sensitivity toward the changes of water quality in stream system.

Consequently, the urgent need of an accurate estimation of richness to provide valuable
information to reflect the actual stream condition. This study was done mainly to estimate the

family richness of the aquatic insect communities as well as to determine the relationship
between the family richness and the water parameters in selected feeder streams and rivers of

Tasik Kenyir, Terengganu. Aquatic insects were collected using disturbance removal

technique, in 2017 and 2019 from 16 streams and rivers that were frequently encountered long
term flooding event especially during monsoon season. There were 42 families of aquatic

insects from eight orders were collected in 2017 while 47 families from seven orders in 2019.
The family observed (Fobs) for both 2017 and 2019 were almost reaching the asymptote as the

family richness estimators predicted only one to three families were missing from the

collections when sample size doubled. Nonetheless, Principle Component Analysis (PCA) had
pointed out water parameters such as pH, conductivity, dissolved oxygen and stream velocity

were the most influencing factor on the family richness among the physico-chemical
parameters recorded. The aquatic insects were negatively correlated to all the selected

parameters. Generalized Linear Model (GLM) analysis further suggested, among the selected

parameters, pH was the main determinant factor influencing on the aquatic insect richness at
Tasik Kenyir. These findings revealed that long term flooding event may have substantial effect

to the assemblages of the aquatic insects as well as to stream water quality.

Keywords: estimation, macroinvertebrates, water quality, inundation effect, dam

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