Impact of Anthropogenic Activities on Benthic Macroinvertebrate Communities in the Upper Awash River, Dandi District, Oromia, Ethiopia

Impact of Anthropogenic Activities on Benthic Macroinvertebrate Communities in the Upper Awash River, Dandi District, Oromia, Ethiopia | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Impact of Anthropogenic Activities on Benthic Macroinvertebrate Communities in the Upper Awash River, Dandi District, Oromia, Ethiopia Ayana Chimdo Benti, Diriba Shanko Boke This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-8450380/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Anthropogenic activities are affecting the diversity and distribution of benthic macroinvertebrates within aquatic ecosystems. The study aims to evaluate long-term impact of anthropogenic activities on the diversity of benthic macroinvertebrates in the Upper Awash River. Water samples were gathered using composite sampling methods from four locations along the Upper Awash River and transported to the laboratory to evaluate physicochemical properties while benthic macroinvertebrates were sampled using standard kick-net methods. A total of 8,832 individuals belonging to nine taxa and 36 families (31 insect families and five non-insect families across nine orders) were identified. The community’s composition exhibited significant variation along with the anthropogenic related activities. Chironomidae (Diptera) predominantly occupied the highly affected stations accounting for 97.43% and 97.97% of individuals at stations IV and III, respectively, underscoring the rise of tolerant taxa in degraded areas. Anthropogenic activities also reduced diversity, family richness, EPT%, ETH-bios index, and average taxon scores, but increased dominance taxon. Stations IV (6.5) and III (5.8) indicated poor water quality index, whereas stations I (4.9) and II (4.3) reflected good ecological conditions. Overall, the findings exhibit strong anthropogenic effect on benthic macroinvertebrate communities and the river’s health and highlight the need for prolonged biological monitoring and ecological management of the Upper Awash River. Anthropogenic activities Biological indicators EPT Index Water quality Full Text Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-8450380","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":578651284,"identity":"db1be6c8-15de-4b0e-a374-25cd99b4e2ac","order_by":0,"name":"Ayana Chimdo Benti","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"National Taiwan Ocean University College of Ocean Science and Resource, Doctoral Degree program in Ocean Resource and Environmental Changes, Department of Ocean Resource and Environmental Changes, Keelung, Taiwan","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Ayana","middleName":"Chimdo","lastName":"Benti","suffix":""},{"id":578651285,"identity":"a1f5c391-f6f3-462b-a4bd-28e206993c62","order_by":1,"name":"Diriba Shanko Boke","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA/klEQVRIiWNgGAWjYDCCw2DEkMDAwMbA/KfCBshmbDxAtBYGnjNpIC0N+LUAZZnhWnjbDsMEcQO+47wPDxfU1OXxz25LfCBx5rzd2vbDQFtqbKJxaZE8zG5weMaxw8USd44dNjCouJ287UwiUMuxtNwGHFoMDrMxHOZhO5DYcCO9TSLhzO1kMyD7AGPDYQJa/tUlzgdpOdh2Ltns/EMitPC2MSduuJF2TLKx7YCd2Q0CtkiCtMzsO5y48UZasjHDmeQEsxtAWxLw+IXv/DHmzwXf6hLn3UgzfMxQYWdvdj794YMPNTY4tWCARLDKBGKVg4A9KYpHwSgYBaNgZAAAXzdsU0ROtowAAAAASUVORK5CYII=","orcid":"","institution":"University of Debrecen, Faculty of Science Technology, Doctoral School of Biology and Environmental Sciences, Department of Botany, Debrecen, Hungary","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Diriba","middleName":"Shanko","lastName":"Boke","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-12-25 17:26:30","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8450380/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-8450380/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":103663315,"identity":"5f29d763-afdd-4174-93f8-842eed4a5e61","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-02-28 18:10:05","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":713704,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"AWASH.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-8450380/v1_covered_88e119dd-ac31-4583-90fa-6c81e0dc7da0.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"","formattedTitle":"Impact of Anthropogenic Activities on Benthic Macroinvertebrate Communities in the Upper Awash River, Dandi District, Oromia, Ethiopia","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Anthropogenic activities, Biological indicators, EPT Index, Water quality","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8450380/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-8450380/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eAnthropogenic activities are affecting the diversity and distribution of benthic macroinvertebrates within aquatic ecosystems. The study aims to evaluate long-term impact of anthropogenic activities on the diversity of benthic macroinvertebrates in the Upper Awash River. Water samples were gathered using composite sampling methods from four locations along the Upper Awash River and transported to the laboratory to evaluate physicochemical properties while benthic macroinvertebrates were sampled using standard kick-net methods. A total of 8,832 individuals belonging to nine taxa and 36 families (31 insect families and five non-insect families across nine orders) were identified. The community\u0026rsquo;s composition exhibited significant variation along with the anthropogenic related activities. Chironomidae (Diptera) predominantly occupied the highly affected stations accounting for 97.43% and 97.97% of individuals at stations IV and III, respectively, underscoring the rise of tolerant taxa in degraded areas. Anthropogenic activities also reduced diversity, family richness, EPT%, ETH-bios index, and average taxon scores, but increased dominance taxon. Stations IV (6.5) and III (5.8) indicated poor water quality index, whereas stations I (4.9) and II (4.3) reflected good ecological conditions. 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