Aspects of the natural history of macroinvertebrates in the high plains semi-permanent wetlands in the Department of Casanare

• Main Authors: Jairo A. Camacho-Reyes, Claudia P. Camacho-Rozo
• Format: Publication
• Language: English
• Published: Universidad de los LLanos 2010
• Subjects: macroinvertebrates; semipermanent; tropical ponds; Yopal

It makes contributions to knowledge about the life cycles of macroinvertebrates and their microhabitats are characterized in three semi-permanent water bodies in flooded savannah and overflow in the high plains of the municipality of Yopal-Casanare (tropical ponds San Martín (SM), the Trompillo ( T) and Illusion (LI): 05 ° 21 '31''N072 º 13' 16''W, located at 214 meters). Result of qualitative analysis of material samples collected from multi-year (1998, 1999, 2002 and 2008) in three (I, II and III) different periods of rainfall in the months from May to December, there were 19 families with 29 morphospecies (24 sp SM, 20 T, 18 LI) for stage I; 28 families and 47morphospecies (35 SM, 27 T, 32 LI) in stage II; and 35 families, 57 morphospecies (52 SM, 40 T, 35 LI) in the stage III. Macroinvertebrate communities in these ecosystems show various stages of life cycle: adult, adults and larvae, adults, larvae and pupae, larvae and pupae, larvae. The San Martin pond recorded the highest species diversity followed by Trompillo and Illusion. The San Martin pond presented the greatest diversity in the month of December, followed by July and the lowest reading was obtained in May, coinciding with the onset offlooding of the plains.In these environments the plain and the high plains of the Orinoco, aquatic macroinvertebrates develop reproductive and survival strategies to overcome special drastic changes imposed by the environment, as interpreted physical-chemical assessment in situ of water ponds studied, whose multi-year average values are: temperature 29.4°C, Electrical Conductivity 263 µS.cm ¯ ¹, pH 6.0 and OD 4.4 mg.l ¯¹