Spatial variation in macrobenthic assemblages and their relationship with environmental factors in the upstream and midstream regions of the Heihe River Basin, China

The Heihe River is a typical inland river under increasing anthropogenic pressure. To explore the characteristics of the macrobenthic assemblages and their relationships with environmental factors in the upstream and midstream regions of this basin, abiotic conditions and macrobenthic assemblages were investigated in the summers of 2018 and 2019. A total of 50 species were collected, and Arthropoda and mollusks were the dominant groups. A significant increase in standing stock was observed from the upstream to midstream, and predators (PR) were the main functional feeding group. A one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed that the Shannon-Wiener index and Margalef’s index values significantly differed at the spatial scale (P < 0.05). A redundancy analysis (RDA) and Pearson correlation analysis showed that the spatial heterogeneity of the macrobenthos was influenced by the biochemical oxygen demand (BOD(5)), water temperature (WT), total nitrogen (TN), salinity, electrical conductivity (EC), total dissolved solids (TDS), dissolved oxygen (DO), and potassium permanganate index (COD(Mn)) (P < 0.05). The spatial variation of macrobenthos was mainly governed by natural conditions and human disturbances.