Effects of shoreline alteration and habitat heterogeneity on macroinvertebrate community composition across European lakes

Porst, Gwendolin; Brauns, Mario; Irvine, Kenneth; Solimini, Angelo G.; Sandin, Leonard; Pusch, Martin; Miler, Oliver

doi:10.1016/j.ecolind.2018.10.062

Cited by 26 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…Furthermore, land use next to the lake shoreline has the potential to directly alter the morphology of the littoral zone and, thus, alter the habitat of aquatic macroinvertebrate (McGoff et al., 2013). For example, macroinvertebrate composition differed among shore types and taxon richness of macroinvertebrate decreased with morphological alterations across European lakes (Porst et al., 2019). According to the German Working Group on water issues, agricultural land use types exceeding a 40% of the catchment area are considered as important morphological alterations and pressures on freshwaters water quality (LAWA, 2003).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Macroinvertebrates are one component of food webs in freshwater ecosystems, constituting an important link between primary producers, detrital deposits and higher trophic levels, and they are vital to the functioning of lakes, contributing to nutrient cycling and decomposition (Wallace & Webster, 1996). Macroinvertebrates respond to nutrient enrichments, turbidity, changes in sediment composition, and morphological alterations, often originating from anthropogenic activities (Meng et al., 2018; Porst et al., 2019). Nutrient enrichment alters the community composition of lake macroinvertebrates (Brauns et al., 2007) and homogenizes assemblages of littoral macroinvertebrates (Donohue et al., 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Response of macroinvertebrate communities to land use and water quality in Wudalianchi Lake

Song

Ming³

et al. 2021

Ecology and Evolution

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Macroinvertebrate assemblages are structured by a number of abiotic and biotic factors interacting simultaneously. We investigated macroinvertebrate assemblages along gradients of human disturbance and morphometric characteristics in five lakes connected by the same stream. We aimed to assess the relative effects of environmental gradients on macroinvertebrate assemblages and to investigate whether water quality effects on the assemblages were correlated with buffer land use. There were significant differences in macroinvertebrate community compositions among lakes, and our results indicated that oligochaetes (mainly Limnodrilus) and insects (mainly Chironomus) contributed highly to the differences. We used redundancy analysis with variation partitioning to quantify the independent and combined anthropogenic effects of water quality and land use gradients on the macroinvertebrate community. The independent effect of water quality was responsible for 17% of the total variance in macroinvertebrate community composition, the independent effect of buffer land use accounted for 6% of variation, and the combined variation between land use change and water quality accounted for 12%. Our study indicated that both the independent effects of land use and within‐lake water quality can explain the influence in macroinvertebrate assemblages, with significant interactions between the two. This is rather important to notice that changes in buffer land use generally may alter nutrient inputs and thus severely affect abiotic conditions encountered by macroinvertebrate. Our study demonstrates that considering buffer zone effects explicitly may be significant in the selection and application of conservation and management strategies.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Response of macroinvertebrate communities to land use and water quality in Wudalianchi Lake

Song

Ming³

et al. 2021

Ecology and Evolution

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“…Shore alterations are linked to reduction in habitat diversity, complexity, and the loss of specific habitats such as boulders and rocks, coarse woody debris, submerged tree roots, and macrophyte stands. The metrics are similar to those used in river assessment (e.g., Böhmer et al 2004) and describe the decrease of taxon richness and diversity (Brauns et al 2007, increase of nonnative taxa (Pilotto et al 2015, Pätzig et al 2018, Porst et al 2019, increase of r-strategists (Urbanič et al 2012, and a change from more specialized and sensitive taxa toward generalists and tolerant taxa (Brauns et al 2007, Urbanič 2014. Few studies address the effects of man-made alterations to lake shorelines on macrophyte (Jusik and Macioł 2014) and fish communities (Gafny et al 1992, Mehner et al 2005, Lewin et al 2014, Cummings et al 2017.…”

Section: Conceptual Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…HyMo pressures impact the functioning of lakes and rivers in multiple ways: by reducing structural complexity and heterogeneity of littoral habitats; by changing the natural water-level regimes and hence impacting the physical structure, macrophyte cover, and food webs of littoral zones; by modifying water circulation and stratification patterns; by impacting internal nutrient cycling; and by altering conditions to advantage of invasive species (Brauns et al 2007, Zohary and Ostrovsky 2011, Porst et al 2019, Wang et al 2020). These pressures not only have profound effects on lake littoral communities-such as macrophytes (Radomski and Goeman 2001, Hellsten 2002, Elias and Meyer 2003, Helmers et al 2016, benthic invertebrates (Aroviita and Hämäläinen 2008, Rosenberger et al 2008, Twardochleb and Olden 2016, and fish (Sutela et al 2011, Dustin and Vondracek 2017)-but may also result in a pervasive alteration of whole-lake ecosystems Ostrovsky 2011, Jeppesen et al 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing the ecological effects of hydromorphological pressures on European lakes

2019

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In European countries, hydromorphological (HyMo) pressures are the second most commonly occurring types of pressures on aquatic ecosystems (after eutrophication). HyMo pressures (i.e., man-made alterations to the hydrology and morphometry of aquatic ecosystems) impact the functioning of lakes and rivers in multiple ways. Initially, they have profound effects on littoral communities, such as macrophytes, benthic invertebrates, and fish. Ultimately, they result in pervasive alteration of whole-lake ecosystems. Extensive efforts have been devoted to the development of ecological assessment methods and management measures focusing mainly on eutrophication, whereas HyMo alterations are less understood and not properly addressed. We attempted to clarify the conceptual background, to highlight achievements in method development, including pressure-response relationships and metrics used in assessment, and to underscore issues requiring urgent attention. We concluded that the currently used biological methods do not reliably address HyMo alterations. The need to develop specifically responding biological and HyMo assessment methods and to measure the necessary variables in routine monitoring programs is urgent. This review paper also serves as an introductory article to a small special series of papers on the ecological impacts of water level fluctuations. Papers in this series include an updated literature review on the ecological effects of water level fluctuations on lake macroinvertebrates, a review article specifically devoted to water level fluctuations indicators in the littoral of natural and artificial lakes, and a paper addressing the relationships between water level fluctuation alteration and spatial and temporal patterns of cladoceran communities in a dammed lake.

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“…Among the numerous pressures that affect lake ecosystems, nutrient enrichment on littoral macroinvertebrates assemblages has been frequently investigated (e.g., Brauns, Garcia, Pusch, et al, 2007; Tolonen et al, 2001). Efforts to identify the effects of altered shoreline morphology on littoral invertebrate communities have also increased (e.g., Brauns, Garcia, Walz, et al, 2007; McGoff, Solimini, et al, 2013; Pilotto et al, 2015; Porst et al, 2019; Rosenberger et al, 2008), stimulated by the EC Water Framework Directive (2000/60/EC) requirement to assess the effect of altered hydromorphology on water bodies as a common cause of habitat degradation estimated to account for 10% of European lakes failing to meet their environmental objectives (European Environment Agency, 2018). Hence, there is a growing need for the development of metrics to quantify the morphological degradation at the scale of both the whole lake (Kaufmann & Whittier, 1997; Rowan et al, 2006) and for individual shorelines (Kaufmann et al, 2014; McGoff & Irvine, 2009; Miler et al, 2015; Peterlin & Urbanič, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Unravelling the effect of multiple stressors on ecological structure of littoral lake macroinvertebrates

Jurca

Donohue

McGoff

et al. 2021

Internat Rev Hydrobiol

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Morphological alteration of shorelines and eutrophication both affect the biological integrity of European lakes. These pressures, often acting simultaneously, are difficult to tease apart. In this study, we related the number of taxa with specific habitat preference to habitat complexity across lakes of varying nutrient state. Habitat complexity at morphologically altered shorelines was significantly lower than at unaltered sites across trophic categories. A generalised linear mixed‐effects model showed decreased number of taxa with specific mesohabitat preference at morphologically simplified sites in oligotrophic and mesotrophic, but not eutrophic lakes. These results suggest: (1) an antagonistic interaction between the effect of nutrient enrichment and morphological alterations on lake littoral communities and (2) the number of macroinvertebrate habitat specialists could potentially be used to assess the effects of structural simplifications of shorelines in lakes of low to medium nutrient status. We conclude that the use of functional traits approach in aquatic ecology should foster better understanding of stressor–response relationships for combined effect of multiple stressors.

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Effects of shoreline alteration and habitat heterogeneity on macroinvertebrate community composition across European lakes

Cited by 26 publications

References 32 publications

Response of macroinvertebrate communities to land use and water quality in Wudalianchi Lake

Response of macroinvertebrate communities to land use and water quality in Wudalianchi Lake

Assessing the ecological effects of hydromorphological pressures on European lakes

Unravelling the effect of multiple stressors on ecological structure of littoral lake macroinvertebrates

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