PS 3-44
Aquatic biodiversity around Wildsumaco Biological Station, Ecuador
Wildsumaco Biological Station (WBS) is a new research and education facility on the east Andes slope of Ecuador, located within lower montane rainforest at 1450 m elevation, within the Tropical Andes biodiversity hotspot. WBS is also sited near the buffer zone of Sumaco Napo-Galeras National Park, the core area of the larger Gran Sumaco International Biosphere Reserve. Relatively little work has been done on the aquatic macroinvertebrates in this area. Here we present a preliminary report on the macroinvertebrate diversity around WBS. A total of five streams around WBS were sampled over an eight day period in the summer of 2012, and six streams and one pond were sampled over five days in the summer of 2014. Sampling methods were primarily through d-nets, kick screens and seines.
Results/Conclusions
We found a total of 404 individual organisms from 56 different taxa. The most diverse and abundant groups were the Ephemeroptera, Trichoptera and Odonata. This study represents the first step in documenting the aquatic biodiversity and ecology in this Tropical Andes biodiversity hotspot.