Gunjan Goswami and Deepak Singh
Abstract
The abundance and diversity of benthic macroinvertebrates mainly depend on the overall health of the ecosystem. Before this steadiness, benthic macroinvertebrates play an indispensable role in maintaining this equilibrium. Understanding the factors that influence the abundance and diversity of these macroinvertebrates is crucial for accurately assessing river health. These factors mainly include the type, composition, and grain size of riverbed substrates. Recent studies showed that riverbeds featuring a variety of substrates, such as boulders, pebbles, cobbles, gravel, leaf litter, macro-algae, and macrophytes are particularly conducive to supporting a rich array of macroinvertebrate species. In contrast, more uniform substrates, such as sand and silt, without any aquatic plants, tend to support fewer macroinvertebrate species. EPT (Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, Trichoptera) species represent over half of all macroinvertebrates and thrive in coarse and heterogeneous substrates such as boulders, cobbles, pebbles, and gravel. The high abundance and diversity of EPT species are indicators of the good health of a River ecosystem.