Odonata Concordance amongst aquatic taxa in brazilian savanna streams

Zander Augusto Spigolonia, José Vinícius Bernardya, Leandro Schlemmer Brasilb , Karina Dias-Silvac, Thiago Bernardi Vieirac, Paulo De Marcod

  1. Graduate Program in Ecology and Evolution, Department of Ecology, Federal University of Goiás, Postal Code 131, CEP 74001-970 – Goiânia, Goiás, Brazil
  2. Instituto de Ciências Biológicas e da Saúde, Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso, Postal Code 78.698-000 – Pontal do Araguaia, Mato Grosso, Brazil
  3. Graduate Program in Biodiversity and Conservation, Federal University of Pará, CEP 68372-040 – Altamira, Pará, Brazil
  4. Ecology Department, Federal University of Goiás, Postal Code 131, CEP 74001-970 – Goiânia, Goiás, Brazil

International Journal of Odonatology, Volume 25, Pages 80–88, 2022
https://doi.org/10.48156/13887890.2020.1917178
Published: 22 June 2022 (Received: 28 January 2022, Accepted: 31 May 2022)

Abstract

Environmental management is one of the most important activities in ecological conservation at present. Faced with various socioeconomic impacts (e.g., urbanization, agriculture, and logging), practical and effective ways to analyze and determine how biodiversity is affected by these anthropogenic activities are essential. Utilizing niche theory helps to understand how similar groups of organisms respond to environmental changes based on the assumption that organisms with some niche overlap (i.e., similar resources) will respond similarly to these changes. Members of the order Odonata are frequently used as biological indicators due to their low survey costs, relatively easy taxonomic identification, and sensibility to environmental changes. In this study, using the PROTEST method, we analyze the cross-taxon congruence between Odonata and two aquatic organisms in Brazilian savanna streams: Gerromorpha and fishes. Although congruence was found between aquatic insects (~ 45%), this result changed when we only considered the species’ genera: no congruence for the aquatic insects was found, but instead we found a congruence between Odonata and fishes (~ 44%). Since Odonata showed congruence with the other groups in different taxonomical resolutions and it is a relatively easy and cheap group to collect and identify, we suggest that Odonata could be used as an indicator of disturbance for this set of organisms and hence serve as an alternative method to traditional environmental management techniques.

Keywords: Dragonfly, Heteroptera, Odonata, congruence, fish, environmental management, taxonomic resolution

Issue section: Original Article

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