›› 2008, Vol. 51 ›› Issue (3): 336-341.

• RESEARCH PAPERS •

### The correlation between EPT community distribution and environmental factors

DU Rui-Qing

• Online:2010-07-27 Published:2008-03-20

Abstract: In order to study the correlation between EPT insects and environmental factors, five sampling sites were respectively selected to test EPT insects and the quality of water in the two major water source rivers of Danjiangkou Reservoir from June to July and September to October in 2006. In total, 780 individuals of 16 species (or species groups) in 12 families of EPT insects were collected, and seven physical and chemical monitoring indexes related to water quality were assayed. Both simple and multiple correlation analysis showed that the nitrogen concentration, phosphorus concentration, biochemical oxygen demand were significantly positively correlated with the density of EPT insects (P<0.01), but negatively correlated with the species number (P<0.01). Canonical analysis showed that the groups of EPT insects, which were mainly Ephemeroptera and Plecoptera, were significantly positively correlated with such main environmental factors as the nitrogen concentration, phosphorus concentration, and biochemical oxygen demand P<0.0001. So it is concluded that even in the low pollution and nutrition water environment, EPT insects were significantly correlated in groups with environmental factors, and were greatly affected by environmental factors.