Characterisation of natural streams using community indices and basal resources of macroinvertebrates in the upper Euphrates Basin

The characterisation of natural stream conditions is the first important step to analyse ecological quality of streams in the Euphrates basin. We found that the community indices correspond to very good ecological conditions in five natural streams of that region. The macroinvertebrates composition differed significantly between September and May. Number of taxa and Shannon index were significantly higher in autumn than in spring. FPOM and biofilm were the most relevant basal resources of benthic invertebrates.