Refinement of Habitat‐Based Taxonomic Inventories for Benthic Macroinvertebrates: A Focus on Inland Water Ecosystem Surveys

ABSTRACT Benthic macroinvertebrates are essential biological indicators in biological monitoring and ecological health assessments of aquatic ecosystems. However, species information for benthic macroinvertebrates listed in the National List of Species of Korea has not been systematically organized according to habitat type, potentially leading to inefficiencies and inconsistencies for ecological surveys. This study aimed to organize habitat information for benthic macroinvertebrate species and to construct a habitat‐based species list applicable to inland water ecosystem surveys. A total of 29,330 benthic macroinvertebrate species listed in the National List of Species of Korea were examined, and habitat information for each species was compiled through literature review and ecological data. Species were classified into five habitat categories: freshwater, brackish, marine, terrestrial, and data‐deficient. As a result, terrestrial species accounted for the largest proportion with 21,453 species (73.2%), followed by marine species with 3951 species (13.5%), freshwater species with 1625 species (5.5%), and brackish species with 711 species (2.4%). In addition, 1590 species (5.4%) were classified as data‐deficient. The habitat‐based species list developed in this study enables a systematic organization of taxa with a high probability of occurrence in aquatic ecosystem surveys, thereby improving survey efficiency and enhancing consistency in data interpretation. Furthermore, the use of a standardized species list can reduce discrepancies in taxonomic identification among researchers and provide a reliable basis for long‐term monitoring, including temporal comparisons with past and future datasets as well as comparisons across different ecological survey programs.