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

Abstract

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.

Use of ecosystem health indicators for assessing anthropogenic impacts on freshwaters in Argentina: a review

“…The high representativeness of studies applying invertebrate indices could be related to the wide distribution of these taxa and their important role as bioindicators in freshwater ecosystems. Worldwide studies have demonstrated that anthropogenic activities exert a significant effect on the diversity of sensitive invertebrates (Mehari et al 2014;Chi et al 2017) Domínguez and Fernández 1998), are not only ecologically meaningful, but they could also be integrated into citizen science approaches (Penrose and Call 1995;Nerbonne and Vondracek 2003;Edwards 2016;Rae et al 2019) and thereby enhance dialogue between science and society (Wenger et al 2009). The United Nations has called for increased public participation in scientific research, to benefit professionals, the public, and the planet (Quinlivan et al 2020).…”

Comunidades de macroinvertebrados bentónicos como bioindicador de calidad de agua en un sector del rio Chotano, Perú

“…Con los grupos analizados de los macroinvertebrados a través de órdenes, familias, o géneros para evaluar la calidad del agua, se calculó el índice biótico IBMWP "Biological Monitoring Working Party" modificado y adaptado para el río Chotano [1], [15], además se calculó el índice de riqueza total de EPT (Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera y Trichoptera).…”

Macroinvertebrate Communities in a Lake of an Inter-Basin Water Transfer Project and Its Implications for Sustainable Management

“…However, some community variations in models were still unexplained. One possibility was that low investigation frequency may let slip some key stages of macroinvertebrates life histories; secondly, other factors related to macroinvertebrate assemblages may also influence the spatio-temporal variances, such as biota interaction, substrate composition [62], macrophyte species composition and abundance [24,63], hydraulic and hydrological parameters [25], and human activities [21,64]. Furthermore, short time scale in situ measurements usually hardly capture the spatio-temporal distribution of emergent phenomena such as insect emergence and hatching [65].…”

“…Spatial and temporal researches on macroinvertebrate communities are the basis of further studies, and have been investigated by many researchers [19][20][21][22]. Although assessment methods based on macroinvertebrate are becoming more and more popular in China, the lack knowledge of the environmental and biological data in many regions hinders the development of bio-assessment [23].…”