Some Physical and Chemical Conditions Affecting the Distribution of Aquatic Beetles: Lake of Sidi Boughaba as a Case Study (Kénitra, Morocco)

Wetlands present an important diversity of life and are very productive. Many biotic and abiotic factors intervene in their functioning. Thus, understanding this functioning requires, among other characteristics, physicochemical characterization of their waters and the determination of the specific structure of the stand that inhabits those environments. In this work, the authors were interested in the characterization of the waters of Lake Sidi Boughaba, wetland, and biological reserve registered with the RAMSAR convention. This lake is made up of three parts of unequal volume and duration of flooding. The results showed that the studied living environment is very heterogeneous physicochemical and that from one biotope to another the values of the majority of the physicochemical parameters can vary from single, to double, to three times, and even more. Only the pH, oxygen, and ammonium content are relatively stable. In addition, the results showed that the aquatic beetle population of the prospected environment consists of 34 species and subspecies, grouped into 9 systematic families and that the Dytiscidae family and the Hydrophilidae family are the most represented. Likewise, the biotypological analysis of the population of beetles collected showed the distribution of the 34 inventoried species that are divided into four groups and that, among the 16 physicochemical parameters studied 10 intervene the determination of the specific structure of each of the groups of 'identified species.