A multimetric index based on fish fauna for the evaluation of the biotic integrity of streams at a mesohabitat scale

Casatti, Lílian; Teresa, Fabrício Barreto

doi:10.1590/s2179-975x2013005000003

Cited by 8 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 39 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…species inhabiting only headwater streams; hereafter, Streams), large river specialists (Rivers), and ubiquitous Mean (±SD), minimal and maximal values are given for each variable species known to inhabit both small streams and large rivers (Ubiquitous) (Appendix S1). All sites were characterized by five regional (river basin membership), stream reach (stream width) and local (percentage of coarse substratum, litter and wood) environmental attributes that are known to be the main determinants of fish assemblage richness and composition (Jackson et al 2001;Bojsen and Barriga 2002;Wright and Flecker 2004;Casatti and Teresa 2012). The river membership (i.e.…”

Section: Sampling Methodologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of reduced impact logging and small-scale mining disturbances on Neotropical stream fish assemblages

et al. 2015

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Deforestation and mining are recognized as major threats to Amazonian biodiversity, but, in addition to the well known impacts of clear cutting and industrial mining, the impact of cryptic threats such as illegal smallscale gold-mining and reduced impact logging remain little known. Here, we quantify the impact of those cryptic disturbances on a set of 201 sites dispersed throughout French Guiana. The fish assemblages of 139 pristine forest sites were compared to 16 sites subjected to reduced impact logging (i.e. selective logging), 24 sites with ongoing small-scale gold-mining and 22 sites formerly mined for gold. Controlling for the environmental variability between sites showed the significant structuring effect of all disturbances on fish taxonomic structure, with a marked impact of gold-mining. This effect was of strong magnitude and remained significant after mining activity ceased. In contrast, the reduced impact logging effect remains of low magnitude, although significant. From a functional point of view, gold-mining drives species assemblages towards a decrease in the richness of small-sized stream habitat specialist species and favours larger ubiquitous species living in both streams and rivers. Reduced impact logging effect was slighter, and negatively affected only the richness of phytophagous species. These results, encompassing a variety of hydrographic basins, unambiguously show the detrimental effect of small-scale gold-mining on fish assemblages as well as the slight effect of reduced impact logging. Since gold-mining is one of the most widespread threats throughout the Amazonian region, particular care should be given to controlling this, often illegal, activity.

show abstract

Section: Sampling Methodologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of reduced impact logging and small-scale mining disturbances on Neotropical stream fish assemblages

et al. 2015

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…For each RGB mosaic, we classified the key components of the riverscape, including fluvial mesohabitats (MHs), in-stream fluvial geomorphic features (GFs), and riparian cover (RC). MHs were classified into "run", "riffle", "pool", and "standing water" based on the appearance of the water surface structure to indicate flow velocity, depth visibility, and streambed substrate grain size [63][64][65]. We classified GFs into "gravel bar", "bedrock", and "dead wood".…”

Section: Supervised Classification Of Rgb Imagerymentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing Stream Thermal Heterogeneity and Cold-Water Patches from UAV-Based Imagery: A Matter of Classification Methods and Metrics

et al. 2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Understanding stream thermal heterogeneity patterns is crucial to assess and manage river resilience in light of climate change. The dual acquisition of high-resolution thermal infrared (TIR) and red–green–blue-band (RGB) imagery from unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) allows for the identification and characterization of thermally differentiated patches (e.g., cold-water patches—CWPs). However, a lack of harmonized CWP classification metrics (patch size and temperature thresholds) makes comparisons across studies almost impossible. Based on an existing dual UAV imagery dataset (River Ovens, Australia), we present a semi-automatic supervised approach to classify key riverscape habitats and associated thermal properties at a pixel-scale accuracy, based on spectral properties. We selected five morphologically representative reaches to (i) illustrate and test our combined classification and thermal heterogeneity assessment method, (ii) assess the changes in CWP numbers and distribution with different metric definitions, and (iii) model how climatic predictions will affect thermal habitat suitability and connectivity of a cold-adapted fish species. Our method was successfully tested, showing mean thermal differences between shaded and sun-exposed fluvial mesohabitats of up to 0.62 °C. CWP metric definitions substantially changed the number and distance between identified CWPs, and they were strongly dependent on reach morphology. Warmer scenarios illustrated a decrease in suitable fish habitats, but reach-scale morphological complexity helped sustain such habitats. Overall, this study demonstrates the importance of method and metric definitions to enable spatio-temporal comparisons between stream thermal heterogeneity studies.

show abstract

“…Riffles were shallow, with a rocky or gravelly substrate and a strong to moderate current. Pools had a greater depth, an unconsolidated (litter) or sandy substrate, and a slow stream flow (near zero), while runs had intermediate values of these parameters, i.e., a moderate depth and current and a sandy substrate (Casatti and Teresa 2012;Gosselin et al 2012). Additionally, 15 sites were grouped into three classes of increasing relative human impact:…”

Section: Selection Of Mesoscale Habitats and Land-use Patternmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although it has been reported that fish respond to different types of mesohabitats (Gelwick 1990;Langeani et al 2005;Kennard et al 2005), this information was not directly considered in the fish biotic indices previously proposed, and the IBI protocols were assessed over an entire stream rather than reach or specific site (covering about 200 m). Thus, ecological responses to the disturbance or chemical pollutions were irregular in a particular way in each mesohabitat type over or underestimating certain metrics if the stretch is considered as a whole (Casatti and Teresa 2012;Teresa and Casatti 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An influence of mesohabitat structures (pool, riffle, and run) and land-use pattern on the index of biological integrity in the Geum River watershed

Calderón

2016

j ecology environ

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background: Previous studies on the biological integrity on habitat and landuse patterns demonstrated ecological stream health in the view of regional or macrohabitat scale, thus ignored the mesoscale habitat patterns of pool, riffle, and runs in the stream health analysis. The objective of this study was to analyze influences on the mesohabitat structures of pool, riffle, and run reaches on the fish guilds and biological integrity in Geum-River Watershed. Results: The mesohabitat structures of pool, riffle, and run reaches influenced the ecological stream health along with some close relations on the fish trophic and tolerance guilds. The mesoscale components altered chemical water quality such as nutrients (TN, TP) and BOD and these, then, determined the primary productions, based on the sestonic chlorophyll-a. The riffle-reach had good chemical conditions, but the pool-reach had nutrient enrichments. The riffle-reach had a predominance of insectivores, while the pool-reach has a predominance of omnivores. Also, the riffle-reach had high proportions of sensitive fish and insectivore fish, and the pool-reach had high proportions of tolerant species in the community composition. The intermediate fish species in tolerance and omnivorous fish species in the food linkage dominated the community in the watershed, and the sensitive and insectivorous fishes decreased rapidly with a degradation of the water quality. All the habitat patterns were largely determined by the land-use patterns in the watershed. Conclusions: Trophic guilds and tolerance guilds of fish were determined by land-use pattern and these determined the stream health, based on the Index of Biological Integrity. This study remarks the necessity to include additional variables to consider information provided by mesohabitats and land-use distributions within the selected stream stretch. Overall, our data suggest that land-use pattern and mesohabitat distribution are important factors to be considered for the trophic and tolerance fish compositions and chemical gradients as well as ecological stream health in the watershed.

show abstract

A multimetric index based on fish fauna for the evaluation of the biotic integrity of streams at a mesohabitat scale

Cited by 8 publications

References 39 publications

Effect of reduced impact logging and small-scale mining disturbances on Neotropical stream fish assemblages

Effect of reduced impact logging and small-scale mining disturbances on Neotropical stream fish assemblages

Assessing Stream Thermal Heterogeneity and Cold-Water Patches from UAV-Based Imagery: A Matter of Classification Methods and Metrics

An influence of mesohabitat structures (pool, riffle, and run) and land-use pattern on the index of biological integrity in the Geum River watershed

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About