Abstract
The Sebangau River, which flows west of Palangka Raya City, is one of the main rivers in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. This paper examines the species composition of the macrozoobenthos community as well as water chemistry in the Sebangau River Basin during September 2004 and March 2006. The sampling on the macrozoobenthos as well as water of the Sebangau River was carried out 4 times from September 2004 to March 2006. The list of macrozoobenthos specimens comprised at least 42 genera belonging to 9 families. In the Sebangau River, insects were abundant and dominated by Diptera. The macrozoobenthos community of the Sebangau River Basin was more abundant and diverse in the upstream area. However, the community in the downstream area, especially in canals, was dominated by Chironomidae. Chironomidae was dominant in the Sebangau River system of which the water showed low pH. Lower diversity of the macrozoobenthos in the lower basin of the Sebangau River could be due to the lower amount of organic material contained in the sediment together with the high contamination of sulfuric acid in the lower basin of the river.
