Non-biting midges in biodiversity conservation and environmental assessment: Findings from boreal freshwater ecosystems

Raunio, Janne; Heino, Jani; Paasivirta, Lauri

doi:10.1016/j.ecolind.2010.12.002

Cited by 45 publications

(40 citation statements)

References 83 publications

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“…It has, conversely, been common place to exclude chironomids from water quality assessments, because the Chironimidae are a complex group, for which the required taxonomic expertise is often not available. In parallel to this position, it has also been suggested that the Chironomidae diversity does not add much relevant information and that other groups capture the needed information more easily for the lotic system at the level of the assemblage (Raunio et al, 2011). This idea has, however, been invalidated by the absence of, or at best weak, correlation in species richness of Chironomidae and other taxonomic groups (Heino et al, 2009;Heino, 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

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Chironomid faunal composition represented by taxonomic distinctness index reveals environmental change in a lotic system over three decades

et al. 2011

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The widely distributed family of the Chironomidae represents the most diverse and abundant group of macroinvertebrate fauna and potentially provides information on stream water quality and the effect of anthropogenic disturbances. Change in the chironomid faunal composition in the Southern Morava River basin (Serbia) was examined by comparing data from 1981 and 2010. We tested the performance of the parameter ''taxonomic distinctness'' (delta ? ) as an indicator of water quality and examined the possible relationship between delta ? and water quality using PCA. The 2010 survey yielded 96 taxa in 28 localities over three seasons. In total, 10,179 specimens represented the five subfamilies. Chironomid diversity was captured with the index delta ? that is based upon taxonomic distinctiveness and purported to be independent of sampling effort. Delta ? was correlated to total species richness and is significantly higher now than it was in 1981. In keeping with PCA results, delta ? was increasing in accordance with water quality increase. We conclude that delta ? is a useful measure for estimating anthropogenic disturbance over time. The linear relationship between delta ? and the water quality gradient gives rise to a novel metric, independent of sampling effort, in the multimetric approaches of analyzing macroinvertebrate assemblage data for bioassessments.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…The resulting environmental degradation calls for the monitoring of the environment and proper conservation planning (Raunio et al, 2011). Of all the freshwater organisms that have been considered for use in biological monitoring, benthic macroinvertebrates are most often recommended (Carter et al, 2006).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chironomid faunal composition represented by taxonomic distinctness index reveals environmental change in a lotic system over three decades

et al. 2011

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“…We sampled adult chironomids with emergence traps, instead of sampling larvae, because this method provides information on chironomid species, which actually complete their aquatic larval stage in the study area (Raunio et al 2011). We used a specifically designed emergence trap built from plastic pipe and mesh to catch emerging species, placed at 5 m from the shore.…”

Section: Insect Trappingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sediment organic tin contamination promotes impoverishment of non-biting midge species communities in the Archipelago Sea, S-W Finland

et al. 2012

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Chironomid species are a vital component in many benthic and terrestrial food webs; they have an important role in the detritus cycle, and are an important source of food for many species. We studied how tributyltin (TBT) in brackish water sediments affect the composition of chironomid species communities. Emergence traps were used at selected sites on a TBT gradient in the Archipelago Sea, S-W Finland. Increased sediment TBT concentration was associated with significant chironomid species turnover, which in turn was related to decreased species diversity (number of species and genera). However, the overall number of individuals did not decrease markedly with increasing TBT contamination. This suggests that the ecological role of chironomids in the food web may be preserved even under severe impoverishment of the chironomid community due to organic tin contamination. The increased prevalence of more TBT tolerant species can potentially lead to a transport of organic tin compounds between aquatic and terrestrial food webs. Furthermore, the reduced diversity of an ecologically influential group might lower the resistance of the entire food web to other environmental hazards and perturbations.

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“…Most benthic sampling methods use nets with a mesh size fine enough to collect small larvae (Storey and Pinder, 1985;Hudson and Adams, 1998). On the other hand, many studies have used surface floating pupal exuviae methods or chironomid pupal exuvial techniques to effectively assess the biological condition of aquatic habitats using community metrics (e.g., richness, composition, diversity indices, biotic indices) to assess the condition of lotic habitats (e.g., Cranston et al, 1997;Bitušík and Hamerlík, 2001;Hayford and Ferrington, 2005;Rieradevall, 2007;Raunio et al, 2011), resulting in a higher number of taxa. In the Dicle (Tigris) River Basin, drifting material contained numerous pupal exuviae from Chironominae and Orthocladiinae, and we identified 10 taxa using pupal exuviae material exclusively.…”

Section: Cricotopus Bicinctusmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial and temporal distribution of aquatic insects in the Dicle (Tigris) River Basin, Turkey, with new records

Çetinkaya¹,

Bekleyen²

2017

Turk J Zool

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IntroductionAquatic macroinvertebrates are critical to ecosystem functioning through their regulation of many essential topdown and bottom-up ecosystem processes such as energy translocation, nutrient flow, and detrital decomposition (Hellmann et al., 2015). Aquatic insects are among the important components of the aquatic communities in terms of taxa richness and their role in the food web. They have been used as bioindicators of pollution and water quality in environmental studies (e.g.

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Non-biting midges in biodiversity conservation and environmental assessment: Findings from boreal freshwater ecosystems

Cited by 45 publications

References 83 publications

Chironomid faunal composition represented by taxonomic distinctness index reveals environmental change in a lotic system over three decades

Chironomid faunal composition represented by taxonomic distinctness index reveals environmental change in a lotic system over three decades

Sediment organic tin contamination promotes impoverishment of non-biting midge species communities in the Archipelago Sea, S-W Finland

Spatial and temporal distribution of aquatic insects in the Dicle (Tigris) River Basin, Turkey, with new records

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