The Variation of Size Distributions of Benthic Communities Across a Range of Irrigating Ponds and Canals of North Yorkshire, UK
The Variation of Size Distributions of Benthic Communities Across a Range of Irrigating Ponds and Canals of North Yorkshire, UK
Hamida Bibi1*, Dave Rraffaelli2 and Muhammad Sharif1
ABSTRACT
The study on body size distribution of benthic creatures was carried out to assess the quality of irrigating water and to reveal the real environmental condition of ponds and canal system of North Yorkshire, UK. Samples of benthic communities from eight different stations were collected from the bed of ponds and canals with a pond net. The sites were varying in their qualities as determined in the laboratory by Average Score Per Texon (ASPT) as well as water conductivity. For most sites the body mass distributions were skewed towards smaller body sizes with another apparent mode for large size class. Contrary Kernel Density Estimates (KDE) for body mass spectra revealed marked differences in modalities among the sites. The distributions of body masses in cleanest and polluted sites were inversely related with water quality while intermediate quality sites were highly variable in modality and there is no consistency between the number of modes, ASPT and Biological Monitoring Working Party (BMWP) score. If anything, the negative relationship has been revealed between water quality (BMWP score and ASPT) and the number of modes and this negative correlation was significant R2 = 0.5072, p <0.05.
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