Factors Affecting Macrobenthic Invertebrates Distribution in Badagry Creek, South Western Nigeria

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to identify macroinvertebrates distribution in response to induced stressors and physico-chemical parameters of water and sediment. The species composition of macrobenthic invertebrates as well as the physico-chemical characteristics of Badagry creek was investigated monthly. Six sampling stations selected based on different levels of human activities along the creeks stretch and samples were collected monthly from September 2006 to February 2007. The fluctuations of some of the physical and chemical parameters such as pH, dissolved oxygen, BOD and total organic carbon appeared to have been influenced by activities along the study stretch. Analysis of variance (ANOVA)  for all parameters showed no significant differences (P > 0.05) in the parameters but  Post hoc tests analysis using Duncan showed that there was a significant difference (P = 0.05) in the mean total of some of the parameters. pH, clay, sand and gravel were significantly correlated with other parameters while canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) model showed that the environmental variables correlated with significant part of the variations in the individual species abundance and it revealed that dominant species were found to be significantly correlated with dissolved oxygen, total dissolved solids, sand and pH.