Saline rivers provide arid landscapes with a considerable amount of biochemically valuable production of chironomid (Diptera) larvae

Saline rivers are supposed to be ‘hot spots’ of high biological productivity in arid landscapes. To test this, we quantified the production of chironomid larvae, because river production is known to be transferred to arid landscapes primarily by birds fed on these larvae. In addition, we studied the...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Hydrobiologia 2014-01, Vol.722 (1), p.115-128
Main Authors: Zinchenko, Tatiana D., Gladyshev, Michail I., Makhutova, Olesia N., Sushchik, Nadezhda N., Kalachova, Galina S., Golovatyuk, Larisa V.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aquatic ecosystems
Arid environments
Biochemistry
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Birds
Ecology
Fatty acids
Freshwater & Marine Ecology
Insects
Larvae
Life Sciences
Omega-3 fatty acids
Primary Research Paper
Rivers
Salinity
Species composition
Unsaturated fatty acids
Zoology
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Summary:Saline rivers are supposed to be ‘hot spots’ of high biological productivity in arid landscapes. To test this, we quantified the production of chironomid larvae, because river production is known to be transferred to arid landscapes primarily by birds fed on these larvae. In addition, we studied the potential biochemical quality of the larvae for birds based on the essential highly unsaturated fatty acid (HUFA) contents in their biomass. We studied species composition and measured production of chironomid larvae in two saline rivers (Volgograd region, Russia). We also evaluated the fatty acid composition and contents of the dominant taxa and estimated the flux of HUFA from the studied saline rivers to land via chironomid potential emergence. Average monthly production of chironomids measured for only 1 month, August, was quite comparable to annual production in some freshwater rivers. All the dominant chironomid larvae had comparatively high essential eicosapentaenoic acid contents, especially Cricotopus salinophilus , which showed the highest value, reported for Chironomidae. The monthly flux of HUFA from the studied rivers to land due to the chironomid potential emergence was roughly comparable to the global average estimation of annual water–land HUFA export via emerging insects.
ISSN:0018-8158
1573-5117
DOI:10.1007/s10750-013-1684-5