Is fine sediment deposition a main driver for the composition of benthic macroinvertebrate assemblages?

Bertrab, Marta Gerta von; Krein, Andréas; Stendera, Sonja; Thielen, Frankie; Hering, Daniel

doi:10.1016/j.ecolind.2012.08.001

Cited by 45 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 53 publications

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“…Hence, river rehabilitation efforts that have focused on providing habitat structures without improving the flow regime have reportedly failed in Europe (Lorenz et al, ; Palmer, Menninger, & Bernhardt, ). Other authors (Dahm et al, ; Von Bertrab, Krein, Stendera, Thielen, & Hering, ) have reported that habitat degradation and sedimentation at site scale have a relatively small impact on biotic metrics as also observed in this study.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 84%

Disentangling and ranking the influence of multiple stressors on macroinvertebrate communities in a tropical river system

Mwedzi

Zimunya

Bere

et al. 2017

Internat Rev Hydrobiol

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Spatial contrasts in lotic macroinvertebrate assemblages have been ascribed to physico‐chemical, hydrological, and physical habitat conditions. The objective of this study was to disentangle and rank the influences of multiple stressors on benthic macroinvertebrates in the Manyame Catchment, Zimbabwe. Sampling sites were chosen according to their relative location from dams (upstream of dams; 0–10 km downstream of dams; 11–20 km downstream of dams; and >20 km downstream of dams). Benthic macroinvertebrates, physico‐chemical, physical habitat structure; and sediment grain size data were collected at 12 sites in two seasons and paired with long‐term hydrological data. Principal component analysis (PCA) was employed to identify key variables that describe the major sources of variation while minimizing redundancy. Subsequently, generalised linear models (GLMs) were used to investigate the relationship between these key variables and macroinvertebrate community structure and composition. Finally, we used canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) and partial CCA to illustrate the significant relationships from the GLMs across site categories. Macroinvertebrate community structure and composition was significantly driven by four physico‐chemical variables (dissolved oxygen, pH, total nitrogen, total dissolved solids), five hydrological variables (base flow index, low pulse duration, December low flow, small flood timing, extreme low flow duration) and interactions among these variables. Interactions of physico‐chemical conditions and low flows demonstrated that pollution will aggravate impacts of hydrological alteration on biota. Partial CCA showed that physico‐chemical variables had the greatest influence on macroinvertebrate communities. Hence, physico‐chemical conditions remain the most important in structuring macroinvertebrates in the Manyame Catchment. The study highlights the importance of accounting for multiple stress factors in in‐stream ecology.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 84%

Disentangling and ranking the influence of multiple stressors on macroinvertebrate communities in a tropical river system

Mwedzi

Zimunya

Bere

et al. 2017

Internat Rev Hydrobiol

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“…Organic matter Austria, Luxemburg, Taiwan, UK Tockner et al (1999), Von Bertrab et al (2013), Yu et al (2001), Glendell and Brazier, (2014b) Excessive inputs of organic matter and the subsequent biological decomposition, can lead to reduced oxygen levels, impacting those species with high oxygen requirements (e.g. Leuctra sp.…”

Section: Metalsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A sediment-specific family-level biomonitoring tool to identify the impacts of fine sediment in temperate rivers and streams

Turley

Bilotta

Chadd

et al. 2016

Ecological Indicators

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Anthropogenic modifications of sediment load can cause ecological degradation in stream and river ecosystems. However, in practice, identifying when and where sediment is the primary cause of ecological degradation is a challenging task. Biological communities undergo natural cycles and variation over time, and respond to a range of physical, chemical and biological pressures. Furthermore, fine sediments are commonly associated with numerous other pressures that are likely to influence aquatic biota. The use of conventional, non-biological monitoring to attribute cause and effect would necessitate measurement of multiple parameters, at sufficient temporal resolution, and for a significant period of time. Biomonitoring tools, which use low-frequency measurements of biota to gauge and track changes in the environment, can provide a valuable alternative means to detecting the effects of a given pressure. In this study, we develop and test an improved macroinvertebrate, family-level and mixed-level biomonitoring tool for fine sediment. Biologically-based classifications of sediment sensitivity were supplemented by using empirical data of macroinvertebrate abundance and percentage fine sediment, collected across a wide range of temperate river and stream ecosystems (model training datasetn=2252) to assign detailed individual sensitivity weights to taxa. An optimum set of weights were identified by non-linear optimisation, as those that resulted in the highest Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient between the index (called the Empirically-weighted Proportion of Sediment-sensitive Invertebrates index; E-PSI) scores and deposited fine sediment in the model training dataset. The family and mixed-level tools performed similarly, with correlations with percentage fine sediment in the test dataset (n=84) ofrs=−0.72 andrs=−0.70p<0.01. Testing of the best performing family level version, over agriculturally impacted sites (n=754) showed similar correlations to fine sediment (rs=−0.68p<0.01). The tools developed in this study have retained their biological basis, are easily integrated into contemporary monitoring agency protocols and can be applied retrospectively to historic datasets. Given the challenges of non-biological conventional monitoring of fine sediments and determining the biological relevance of the resulting data, a sediment-specific biomonitoring approach is highly desirable and will be a useful addition to the suite of pressure-specific biomonitoring tools currently used to infer the causes of ecological degradation

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“…Korte (2010) compared the current and substrate preference of indicators developed for the Hindu Kush-Himalayan region with preferences of European species. Von Bertrab et al (2013) used functional traits to assess species' responses to fine sediment input. Rossaro et al (2012) used freshwaterecology.info for a benthic quality index for European alpine lakes.…”

Section: Biomonitoring and Assessment Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

www.freshwaterecology.info – An online tool that unifies, standardises and codifies more than 20,000 European freshwater organisms and their ecological preferences

Schmidt‐Kloiber

Hering

2015

Ecological Indicators

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Is fine sediment deposition a main driver for the composition of benthic macroinvertebrate assemblages?

Cited by 45 publications

References 53 publications

Disentangling and ranking the influence of multiple stressors on macroinvertebrate communities in a tropical river system

Disentangling and ranking the influence of multiple stressors on macroinvertebrate communities in a tropical river system

A sediment-specific family-level biomonitoring tool to identify the impacts of fine sediment in temperate rivers and streams

www.freshwaterecology.info – An online tool that unifies, standardises and codifies more than 20,000 European freshwater organisms and their ecological preferences

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