The habitat integrity index and aquatic insect communities in tropical streams: A meta -analysis

Conversion of natural landscapes into agricultural land-uses represents a major threat to global biodiversity. In lotic ecosystems, aquatic insects are among some of the most vulnerable organisms to such alterations, and thus it is important to study and evaluate how habitat integrity is affected by human activities. In this work we review the Habitat Integrity Index (HII): a measure of environmental integrity of streams. Our objective was to evaluate if this index is a reliable tool for environmental monitoring in tropical streams. We synthesize the relationship between HII and aquatic insect communities in 647 streams in Brazil. Our analysis showed a significant relationship between HII and aquatic insect communities, explaining 29% of variation in community composition and structure. Thus, the HII reflects local environmental quality, as well as wider landscape conditions, making it a good predictor for aquatic and semiaquatic organisms. Our results indicate that HII is a good alternative for aquatic biomonitoring in the Brazilian stream and in other countries that have an Amazon rainforest.