RICHNESS AND DIVERSITY OF WATER MITE SPECIES AT LOCAL AND REGIONAL SCALE IN SUBTROPICAL YUNGAS (SOUTH AMERICA)

H. R. FERNÁNDEZ; C. BASUALDO; B.G. ROCABADO; B. ROSSO DE FERRADÁS; O. FOSSATI

Advances in Environmental Research, Volume 3

Nova Science Publishers, Inc.

Lugar: Hauppauge, New York; Año: 2009;

We estimated the richness and diversity of water mite communities in subtropical Andean rivers. Rheophilic water mites were sampled quantitatively in 22 comparable riffle zones in running waters across a geographical area located at 12 degrees of latitude in two different regions in the Yungas (cloudy mountain forest) in Argentina and Bolivia. We used richness (graphical and statistical curves) and diversity estimators as well as other similar methods of comparison, and analysed local diversity, species turnover and regional diversity at a hierarchical scale. A total of 33 species were collected from the Yungas eco-region, 26 in Argentina and 14 in Bolivia; 21% of all species were common to the two regions. However, species richness differed significantly between the regions (p < 0.01). Species turnover did not display a pattern of species replacement from north to south. The results revealed the existence of locally different but regionally similar species. Extrapolated data derived from curves indicated higher species richness in Bolivia than in Argentina. The same result was concluded from the á-logseries index.á-logseries index.