Occurrence and diversity of aquatic macroinvertebrates in the Lake Manyara Basin, northern-Tanzania.

Covering approximately 6942 km2, Lake Manyara Basin in the northern-Tanzania is home to charismatic and unique flora and fauna. The basin is a corridor for wildlife constantly moving to and from Tarangire, Burunge and Lake Manyara National Parks (Ngana et al., 2004). The basin is also a home to the most biodiverse aquatic ecosystems including Mto wa Mbu River, Simba River, Kirurumo River, Msasa River, Endabashi River, Lyambi River, Magara River, and Makuyuni River, Lake Burunge, Lake Manyara and several permanent and temporary wetlands. Given that Lake Manyara Basin is of high socio-ecological importance to the region; renowned for high species richness and endemism across multiple taxonomic groups (VPO, 2015). Therefore, access to reliable, and ready-to-use freshwater biodiversity data is vital to guide policy formulation and decision-making processes for sustainable utilization and management of the basin’s freshwater biodiversity. This dataset presents data on the occurrence of freshwater macroinvertebrates from 4 rivers (River Iyambi, River Rohu, River Mto wa Mbu, River Babati), 1 permanent canal named Kissangeji and 60 temporary wetlands in the Lake Manyara Basin in the northern-Tanzania. In total, the dataset covers the period between 2019 and 2021, and contains (864 records and 727 observed taxa genera). The mobilization and preparation of this dataset were funded by JRS Biodiversity Foundation through Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) and its Biodiversity Information for Development (BID).