Diversity and abundance of benthic macroinvertebrates from five lakes of the Lagoa Santa's karstie plateau of Minas Gerais

Abstract

Five lakes from the karstie plateau of Lagoa Santa-MG were compared in relation to the number of benthic macroinvertebrate taxa, density, dominance, and similarity. The total number of taxa amounted to 36, among which 21 taxa were common to the rainy and dry seasons: 12 were restricted of the rainy season and three only appeared during the dry season Lagoa dos Mares presented the best structured community, with high number of taxa (28), low dominance, and low ratio individuals/taxa, followed by Lagoa Olhos D'água with 23 taxa, five times more individuals/ taxa, almost four times more ind/m², and a 39% dominance. Lagoa Santa and Lagoa Confins were similar, presenting a weak community structure with low number of taxa and dominance higher than 60%. Finally, Lagoa do Sumidouro that, in spite of having a high number of taxa, showed a great dominance of Melanoides tuberculata (78%), with densities reaching up to 2483 ind/m².