Synopsis top ↑
The zoocoenological and saprobiological investigations here represented are part of an interdisciplinary system of brook-types, which is based on general geographical aspects such as climate,orography, hydrography and geological rock-types. Investigations were carried out in areas of high mountains, hills and lowlands in the Federal Republic of Germany, where nine representative catchment areas brook-systems with minimal anthropogenic influences were chosen for macroinvertebrate studies.
For six geochemical-altitudinal brook types, characteristic lotic and lenitic macroinvertebrate communities are described, by means of their coenological parameters frequency/abundance, as well as by the use of cluster analyses. These communities were consequently named after characteristic species or genera.
Saprobiological analyses of unpolluted high mountain, hill and lowland brooks show clear differences in the qualitative composition of their indicator species, according to the saprobic system of Slâdecek (1973). This is thought to be due to water flow characteristics and the substrate type.
For the most important brook-types different „basic saprobic conditions" are determined and quantified with the „10-point-method" by Zelinka & Marvan (1961). Here they are called „type-specific saprobity spectra".