Spatial and seasonal variability of macroinvertebrate metrics: Do macroinvertebrate communities track river health?

Álvarez‐Cabria, Mario; Barquín, José; Juanes, José A.

doi:10.1016/j.ecolind.2009.06.018

Cited by 64 publications

(36 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…In this study, the total and the average number of taxa per study site were significantly higher in sites with higher habitat diversity, as has been found in other temperate European Atlantic rivers (Harper & Everard, 1998;Cucherousset et al, 2008). However, we did not find any clear relationship between macroinvertebrate richness and water quality or hydromorphological stress gradients (see Alvarez-Cabria et al, 2010). Therefore, it seems that the number of macroinvertebrate taxa in temperate Atlantic rivers is more influenced by the structural complexity of the habitat than by anthropogenic stress gradients.…”

Section: Macroinvertebrate Diversity and Abundance Patternscontrasting

confidence: 39%

“…Study sites were grouped by means of a cluster analysis based on Ward's method for Euclidean distances according to their hydromorphological and water quality characteristics (for a more detailed description see Alvarez-Cabria et al, 2010). Three groups were obtained.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…of mid-reach sites with a certain degree of human alteration (PA2, PA3 and PI2, seeAlvarez- Cabria et al, 2010). The third group G3 consisted of the most downstream and altered sites (PA4, PA5 and PI3, the downstream group).…”

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confidence: 99%

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Macroinvertebrate community dynamics in a temperate European Atlantic river. Do they conform to general ecological theory?

2010

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Spatial and temporal dynamics of macroinvertebrate communities have usually been linked to several environmental and anthropic factors. The aim of this study is to elucidate how important are these factors in structuring macroinvertebrate communities from temperate regions. Regarding the macroinvertebrate number of taxa, the Habitat Template Model, the Dynamic Equilibrium Hypothesis and the Intermediate Disturbance Hypothesis will be tested in order to know how important the diversity of instream elements and the hydrological disturbance frequency are in defining the macroinvertebrate taxonomic richness. Thus, the structure and composition of macroinvertebrate communities were analysed in nine sites of the Pas River basin, a temperate Atlantic basin in northern Spain, during winter, spring, summer and autumn 2005, together with water physicochemical and environmental characteristics. Macroinvertebrate abundance increased downstream and during summer, probably favoured by lower hydraulic stress and water organic enrichment. As predicts the Habitat Template Model, the macroinvertebrate number of taxa was related to habitat heterogeneity. However, no clear relationship amongst macroinvertebrate richness and water quality was found. The macroinvertebrate taxonomic richness did not correspond exactly with the Dynamic Equilibrium Hypothesis and the Intermediate Disturbance Hypothesis because it was relatively high in the absence of hydrological disturbances (summer). Thus, disturbance events may play a secondary role in determining the seasonal dynamic of the number of taxa. However, hydrological disturbances can be considered the most important factors explaining the seasonal pattern of macroinvertebrate abundance. On the other hand, spatial patterns of macroinvertebrate community structure and composition were mainly determined by resource availability, hydraulic conditions, habitat heterogeneity and human alterations, whilst hydrological predictability and resource availability might play a major role in determining seasonal dynamics.

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Section: Macroinvertebrate Diversity and Abundance Patternscontrasting

confidence: 39%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Macroinvertebrate community dynamics in a temperate European Atlantic river. Do they conform to general ecological theory?

2010

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“…However, any stream reach has a variety of habitats such as pools, jams, riffles and different substrate sizes with different trapping efficiencies (Hoover et al, 2010) that make the distribution of leaf-litter to be patchy (Webster et al, 2001). Moreover, these mesohabitats also differ in a number of environmental characteristics such as flow velocity and oxygen saturation that affect biological communities (Álvarez-Cabria et al, 2010) and decomposition (Flores et al, 2013). Thus, to reduce the intra-reach variability, leaf bags have been mostly placed in riffles.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Differences in water depth determine leaf-litter decomposition in streams: implications on impact assessment reliability

Martínez

Basaguren

Larrañaga

et al. 2016

Knowl. Manag. Aquat. Ecosyst.

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-Leaf-litter decomposition is a widespread functional indicator to assess the stream ecosystem status. However, the spatial location of leaf-bags could distort the impact assessment since intrinsic features of a given site have an important role in the spatial distribution of macroinvertebrates, which could affect decomposition rate. A source of variability that can be easily controlled is the water depth at which bags are incubated in stream bed. Therefore, we tested if water depth within a same mesohabitat (riffles) can determine decomposition rates. Due to the seasonal variability of macroinvertebrate assemblages in temperate regions, the study was performed in autumn-winter and spring to test the consistency of the findings. In three streams from North of Spain 15 mesh bags with alder leaves were placed in riffles covering a gradient of depths. Depth had a positive effect on decomposition rates and biomass of associated total invertebrates and shredders in autumn-winter, fauna variables helping to explain the differences in rates. In spring, depth affected negatively rates, the observed variability being weakly explained by invertebrates, which did not show differences along depth. Despite the opposite trend between seasons, water depth influences the decomposition rates, which may reduce or increase differences among systems if the water depth distribution is greatly biased. Our study highlights the importance of covering a similar range of water depths in the different systems being compared.Key-words: leaf-litter decomposition / water depth / assessment Résumé -Les différences dans la profondeur de l'eau déterminent la décomposition de la litière dans les rivières : implications sur la fiabilité de l'évaluation de l'impact. La décomposition de la litière est un indicateur fonctionnel très répandu pour évaluer l'état de l'écosystème en rivière. Cependant, la localisation spatiale des sacs de feuilles pourrait fausser l'évaluation de l'impact puisque les caractéristiques intrinsèques d'un site donné ont un rôle important dans la distribution spatiale des macroinvertébrés, ce qui pourrait affecter le taux de décomposition. Une source de variabilité qui peut être facilement contrôlée est la profondeur de l'eau à laquelle les sacs sont incubés dans le lit du cours d'eau. Par conséquent, nous avons testé si la profondeur de l'eau au sein d'un même mésohabitat (radiers) peut déterminer le taux de décomposition. En raison de la variabilité saisonnière des assemblages de macroinvertébrés dans les régions tempérées, l'étude a été réalisée en automne-hiver et au printemps pour tester la cohérence des résultats. Dans trois rivières du nord de l'Espagne, 15 sacs en filet avec des feuilles d'aulne ont été placés dans des radiers couvrant un gradient de profondeurs. La profondeur a eu un effet positif sur les taux de décomposition et la biomasse totale des invertébrés et celle des déchiqueteurs associés en automne-hiver, les variables de la faune aidant à expliquer les différences dans les taux. Au printemps, l...

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“…Although macroinvertebrates are usually used as bio-indicators in environmental or ecological assessments and present several advantages compared to other aquatic organisms, they are limited by various drawbacks and are influenced by human stress and natural factors such as hydrological regime, water temperature, light level, water chemistry, food resources and habitat heterogeneity; these factors present seasonal variations in communities due to changes in species related to life history strategy [5][6][7][8][9][10].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Temporal variations in macroinvertebrate communities from the tributaries in the Three Gorges Reservoir Catchment, China

Chi

Chen

et al. 2017

Rev. Chil. de Hist. Nat.

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Background: The seasonal variations in macroinvertebrate communities in tropical, temperate and subarctic regions have been observed and well documented to date, but similar studies conducted in subtropical rivers at the regional scale are relatively rare. In this paper, the macroinvertebrate communities from the main tributaries in the Three Gorges Reservoir Catchment (TGRC) were investigated as a function of the four seasons to explore the temporal variations in macroinvertebrate communities and further tests the temporal stability of certain metrics that are based on macroinvertebrates under a routine bioassessment framework. Results: The taxa richness reached the highest point in spring, followed by winter, autumn and summer. The taxa Chironomidae, Heptageniidae, Corbiculidae and Baetidae dominated the communities across seasons. The temporal variations in communities were mainly reflected in the changes in taxa proportions between seasons. The percentages of the taxa Heptageniidae and Baetidae were the highest in autumn (normal discharge period) and lowest in summer (high discharge period). The abundance of macroinvertebrates was the lowest in summer, increased in autumn and winter, and then decreased in spring. Natural fluctuations of aquatic ecosystems (temporal effects) resulted in variations that were apparent in macroinvertebrate-based metrics, such as EPT%, Baetidae%, Caenidae%, Ephemerellidae% and Hydropsychidae%. Conclusions:The results of our study demonstrated that the macroinvertebrate communities in the main tributaries of the TGRC varied as a function of seasons. This variation was fundamentally similar to the seasonal patterns in subarctic and temperate streams. Different hydro-morphological characteristics and water quality during the high discharge period (summer), low discharge period (winter) and normal discharge period (spring and autumn) strongly affected the distribution patterns of macroinvertebrate communities. Discharge variation among seasons resulted in seasonal fluctuations in the density of macroinvertebrates. In the TGRC, autumn was the important hatching period for mayflies (Ephemeroptera). The variations in metrics related to macroinvertebrates indicated that temporal effects should not be neglected under a biomonitoring framework in future studies.

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Spatial and seasonal variability of macroinvertebrate metrics: Do macroinvertebrate communities track river health?

Cited by 64 publications

References 49 publications

Macroinvertebrate community dynamics in a temperate European Atlantic river. Do they conform to general ecological theory?

Macroinvertebrate community dynamics in a temperate European Atlantic river. Do they conform to general ecological theory?

Differences in water depth determine leaf-litter decomposition in streams: implications on impact assessment reliability

Temporal variations in macroinvertebrate communities from the tributaries in the Three Gorges Reservoir Catchment, China

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