Multivariate approach to the study of aquatic species diversity of dendrite streams of River Kano, Nigeria

Abstract

Diversity of macroinvertebrates as well as Physico-chemical parameters were  investigated in six sampling sites of Kano River between June 2014 to May 2015. The pattern of association between measured Physico-chemical parameters were significantly correlated using Pearson Product Moment Correlation and revealed high positive correlation between Total Nitrate and Total Phosphate at site A (.811) and negative correlation between Dissolved Oxygen and pH at site E (-.261). Eigen value of the three variables namely; Temperature, pH and Electrical Conductivity was satisfactory, explaining 73.64% and 70.79% of the total variance in dry season and wet season respectively, other components explained 26.36% and 29.06% noise. Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin in dry season value showed 0.700 degree of common variance is middling bordering meritorious adequacy value while wet season showed miserable degree of common variance value of 0.500. Bartletts' Test of Sphericity showed no difference in wet and dry season with the significant value of p < 0.001. Macroinvertebrates species group frequency distribution of homogeneous set at N 2271 showed Chironomidae subset-7 with the significance of 1.00 highest in harmonic mean value and Planariidae in subset-1 has 0.59 lowest in the value. Generalized Linear Model further revealed the pattern in seasonal variation in the macroinvertebrates data set. The findings were discussed and recommendations made.

Key words: Dendrites, Diversity, Eigen value, Macroinvertebrates, Multivariate, River Kano.