DISPERSE – A trait database to assess the dispersal potential of aquatic macroinvertebrates

Abstract

BIOSKETCH 39 Many of the authors are members of the European Cooperation in Science and Technology 40 (COST) Action CA15113 Science and Management of Intermittent Rivers and Ephemeral 41 Streams (SMIRES, www.smires.eu), which aims to improve our understanding of intermittent 42 rivers and ephemeral streams (IRES) and translate this into science-based, sustainable 43 management of river networks. One of the main goals of SMIRES is to facilitate sharing of 44 data and experience, bringing together researchers from many disciplines and stakeholders 45 and creating synergies through networking. The dataset provided and analyzed herein reflects 46 3 networking and collaboration within the SMIRES working group dedicated to Community 47 Ecology and Biomonitoring. 48 49 Abstract 50 Motivation: Dispersal is an essential process in population and community dynamics but is 51 difficult to measure in the field. In freshwater systems, relevant information on the dispersal 52 of many taxa remains scattered or unpublished, and biological traits related to organisms' 53 morphology, life history and behaviour offer useful dispersal proxies. We compiled 54 information on selected dispersal-related biological traits of European aquatic 55 macroinvertebrates in a unique source: the DISPERSE database. Information within 56 DISPERSE can be used to address fundamental questions in metapopulation ecology, 57 metacommunity ecology, macroecology, and eco-evolutionary research. From an applied 58 perspective, the consideration of dispersal proxies can also improve predictions of ecological 59 responses to global change, and contribute to more effective biomonitoring and conservation 60 management strategies. 61 Main types of variable contained: Selected macroinvertebrate dispersal-related biological 62 traits: maximum body size, adult female wing length, adult wing pair type, adult life span, 63 number of reproductive cycles per year, lifelong fecundity, dispersal mode (i.e. active, 64 passive, aquatic, aerial), and propensity to drift. 65 Spatial location: Europe.66 Time period: Taxa considered are extant with recent records. Most data were collected in the 67 20th century and in the period 2000-2019.68 4 Major taxa and level of measurement: Aquatic macroinvertebrates from riverine and 69 lacustrine ecosystems, including Mollusca, Annelida, Platyhelminthes, and Arthropoda such 70 as Crustacea and Insecta. For Insecta, aquatic stages and the aerial (i.e. flying) phases of 71 adults were considered separately. Genus-level taxonomic resolution used, except for some 72 Annelida and Diptera, which are coded at the sub-class, family or sub-family level. In total, 73 the database includes 39 trait categories grouped into nine dispersal-related traits for 480 taxa.74 Software format: The data file is in Excel workbook.75

Local and regional drivers influence how aquatic community diversity, resistance and resilience vary in response to drying

“…We used nine traits relating to life cycles, morphology, physiology and behaviour (Table 1) to determine taxon‐specific resistance and/or resilience to drying conditions, sourced from Tachet et al (2010) and Sarremejane et al (2020a). A fuzzy‐coding approach was used to assign traits to taxa at genus level, with affinities for each trait modality standardized as percentage affinities within a trait.…”

As time goes by: 20 years of changes in the aquatic macroinvertebrate metacommunity of Mediterranean river networks

“…We classified macroinvertebrate families according to their ability to fly and to drift using information from a set of biological traits and expert opinion as described in the DISPERSE database (Sarremejane et al, 2020). For the ability to fly, we considered traits that indicate dispersal mode (passive/active in the aquatic and the aerial environment; Tachet et al, 2010), but also other related traits from the larvae and adult stages (e.g.…”

“…Female wing length included eight categories from <5 to >50 mm, whereas adult life span included four categories from <1 week to >1 year (Sarremejane et al, 2020). For the ability to drift, we considered propensity to drift from Rader (1997), which included three categories from rare to frequent intentional drift.…”

Land use and local environment affect macroinvertebrate metacommunity organization in Neotropical stream networks

“…These traits are useful surrogates of organismal dispersal capacity and included adult life span, voltinism (number of generations per year), body size, directional flight capacity and drift propensity (Sarremejane et al, 2020). We classified each taxon as very short (<1 week), short (<1 month) or long (>1 month) adult life span as described in Poff et al (2006).…”