A habitat suitability modeling of Campylocia burmeisteri (EPHEMEROPTERA: Euthyplociidae) (Hagen, 1888) and its application on freshwater resources conservation

Modelagem de adequabilidade de habitat de Campylocia burmeisteri (EPHEMEROPTERA: Euthyplociidae (Hagen, 1888) e suas aplicações na conservação recursos de água doce

Abstract:

Aim  This paper aims to make inferences about the quality of watercourses, and its conservation, through the habitat suitability model of Campylocia burmeisteri.

Methods  The modelling demanded twenty-five occurrence records, twelve as training data and thirteen as test data. The study area consisted of a 300 kilometers buffer zone applied over the occurrence records. We used a set of twenty-two environmental layers as ambient data, as follows: 19 bioclimatic variables available on Worldclim; altitude from Worldclim; slope, obtained through geoprocessing in ArcGis v10.3 with altitude variable; and drainage density provide by Ambdata. These layers were transformed by the use of fuzzy logic to represent a continuous variation, and thus the most significant data was select after a PCA. To indicated to new surveys areas, we define locations with significant occurrence probability and distant from occurrence points. And, lastly, we observed the environmental integrity to analyze the potential watercourse quality, by using satellite images, in a buffer zone of ten kilometers from Espinhaço Range Biosphere Reserve.

Results  The chosen regions with the highest occurrence probability, which account for 9 new survey areas, are concentrated in interfluvial areas and near conservation units. We performed an analysis focused on the region of the Espinhaço Range Biosphere Reserve and delimited seven areas that presented good habitat suitability. The region was observed using satellite images, and five of the areas presented high ecological integrity. Two areas showed impacts from mining activity.

Conclusions  The distribution pattern corroborates the features of the species as a bioindicator of good water quality. It is estimated that this methodology can be adapted and applied to other bioindicators. The areas where headwaters and low-order tributaries are present must be conserved, because they are fundamental for maintaining the quality within the respective watershed.

Keywords:  headwater; freshwater; river conservation; bioindication; aquatic insect; benthic macroinvertebrate