Abstract
The contemporaneous effect of natural and anthropogenic factors involved in a watershed contribution to the seasonal and spatial variation of diatom community composition is widely discussed in the scientific literature. Yet, there is a paucity of scientific evidence indicating the effect of these factors on diatoms in tropical African regions characterized by distinct dry and wet seasons and season associated human activities like rainfed agriculture are commonly practiced. We applied multivariate techniques to determine the spatio-temporal drivers of diatom assemblage and diatom species richness in human influenced rivers and streams in Ethiopia. We simultaneously collected water and diatom samples from 24 sampling points during the wet (July) and dry (February) seasons. Both water and diatom samples were processed following standard procedures. We identified 169 species belonging to 45 genera in the studied lotic systems. We found that both season and land use factors were important in defining diatom composition (PERMANOVA, p
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | e0246043 |
Journal | PLOS ONE |
Volume | 16 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Feb 3 2021 |
Bibliographical note
KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2021-02-11Acknowledgements: Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) and Jimma University institutions for their financial and logistic supports during the study.