Introduction: The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of human activities on health and determination of water quality macroinvertebrates functional feeding groups as indices of biological assessment.
Materials & Methods: A field sampling campaign was carried out at four stations each month on 2017. The study entailed sampling of benthic macroinvertebrate using a Surber sampler.
Result: Throughout the sampling period, 46475 number per sampler unit of macroinvertebrates were collected Which were belonging to 16 orders, 35 families and 49 genera. Macroinvertebrates included five functional feeding groups including Collector- Filterer (CF), Collector-Gatherer(CG), Scraper (SCR), Shredder (SHR), Predator (PRD). CG and CF groups had the highest relative abundances in all study stations, except station 3, where CG and PRD groups were dominant, respectively. In stations with high pollution (especially station 1), the abundance of CG feeding group has increased significantly compared to other stations (especially stations 2 and 4). Based on the results obtained from the distribution of macroinvertebrates and their Feeding groups, the impact of human activities including the effluent of agricultural, urban, and rural wastewaters to the little Zab river is quite evident and the stations affected by different types of effluents (Station 1 and 4) had the most unfavorable conditions respect to the other ones.
Conclusion: Therefore, the assessment of macroinvertebrates functional feeding groups are a useful way (with a least cost) to evaluate the consequence of human activities on water quality as it has been observed on Little Zab river ecosystem.