SOME ECOLOGICAL NEEDS OF THE SPECIES IN THE AQUATIC GASTROPODS IN MALATYA REGION (TURKEY)

Abstract

Total of 12 gastropoda species obtained from 45 different sampling locations in Malatya were examined to determine relationships between species and their ecological characteristics from June 2014 to May 2015. The first 2 axes of canonical correspondence analysis explain 86.4 % of the variance between thirteen species and seven environmental variables. The influence of electrical conductivity on species distribution was significantly higher (P = 0.02) than that of the other ecological factors. Two taxa (Anadoludamnicola gloeri and Anadoludamnicola gloeri brevis) were positively correlated to DO and pH. Some species (Acroloxus lacustris, Anadoludamnicola gloeri, Anadoludamnicola gloeri brevis and Ancylus fluviatilis) showed no clear relationship with any of those environmental variables. The most frequently occurring species were clustered into 4 main groups based on their ecological characteristics using unweighted pair group mean averages (UPGMA).