The impact of climate-induced distributional changes on the validity of biological water quality metrics

Hassall, Christopher; Thompson, D. J.; Harvey, Ian F.

doi:10.1007/s10661-008-0709-4

Cited by 13 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…In order to reduce error using the current BMWP score system, we suggest that this system include sensitive species such as G. vulgatissimus and reduce the value of tolerant taxa. It has also been suggested that BMWP scores relying on Odonata might be infl uenced by shifting distributions under climate change (Hassall et al, 2010).…”

Section: Odonates As Bioindicators In Urban Environmentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dragonflies and damselflies (Odonata) in urban ecosystems: A review

Villalobos-Jiménez¹,

Dunn²,

Hassall³

2016

Eur. J. Entomol.

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ISSN (online): 1802-8829http://www.eje.cz gate current research on the impacts of urbanisation using odonates as a model group. First, we will present a brief overview on the impacts of urbanisation on terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems, then we conduct a systematic literature review regarding odonates in urban environments and outline the plausible effects on odonates, followed by the use of odonates as bioindicators, the conservation value of urban wetlands for odonates, a summary of evolutionary strategies for species to cope with urban stressors, and fi nally we conclude by identifying research needs. THE EFFECTS OF URBAN STRESSORS ON TERRESTRIAL AND FRESHWATER ECOSYSTEMSThe wide range of impacts associated with urbanisation indicates that it exerts a considerable effect on terrestrial biodiversity. Most studies show that species richness and evenness is reduced in highly urbanised regions, depending on the taxonomic group observed, degree of urbanisation, and spatial scale of analysis (McKinney, 2002(McKinney, , 2008. For example, butterfl ies (Ruszczyk, 1987;Ruszczyk & De Araujo, 1992; Blair & Launer, 1997) and ground arthropods (McIntyre et al., 2001) show this tendency. The general pattern of biodiversity decrease in cities is probably due to the fact that over 80% of land in city cores is covered by buildings and pavements, with the remain- Abstract. The expansion of urban areas is one of the most signifi cant anthropogenic impacts on the natural landscape. Due to their sensitivity to stressors in both aquatic and terrestrial habitats, dragonfl ies and damselfl ies (the Odonata) may provide insights into the effects of urbanisation on biodiversity. However, while knowledge about the impacts of urbanisation on odonates is growing, there has not been a comprehensive review of this body of literature until now. This is the fi rst systematic literature review conducted to evaluate both the quantity and topics of research conducted on odonates in urban ecosystems. From this research, 79 peer-reviewed papers were identifi ed, the vast majority (89.87%) of which related to studies of changing patterns of biodiversity in urban odonate communities. From the papers regarding biodiversity changes, 31 were performed in an urban-rural gradient and 21 of these reported lower diversity towards built up city cores. Twelve of the cases of biodiversity loss were directly related to the concentrations of pollutants in the water. Other studies found higher concentrations of pollutants in odonates from built-up catchments and suggested that odonates such as Aeshna juncea and Platycnemis pennipes may be candidate indicators for particular contaminants. We conclude by identifying current research needs, which include the need for more studies regarding behavioural ecology and life-history traits in response to urbanisation, and a need to investigate the mechanisms behind diversity trends beyond pollution.

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Section: Odonates As Bioindicators In Urban Environmentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dragonflies and damselflies (Odonata) in urban ecosystems: A review

Villalobos-Jiménez¹,

Dunn²,

Hassall³

2016

Eur. J. Entomol.

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“…While such approaches can extract the major signals in data, they may disguise underlying detail that offers greater potential for diagnosing potential causes of trend. Bioassessment tools may struggle to distinguish between multiple stressors (Chessman & McEvoy, 1998) and could be undermined by additional changes in the environment (e.g., increasing temperatures), requiring cautious application until validated under new conditions (Hamilton et al, 2010;Hassall et al, 2010). Given these limitations, we adopted a different approach, examining nationwide change in the prevalencethe proportion of locations at which a family was presentor spatial distribution of individual taxa through time, before relating this to changes in the environment.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Linking interdecadal changes in British river ecosystems to water quality and climate dynamics

Vaughan

Ormerod

2014

Global Change Biology

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Macroinvertebrate communities in Western European rivers have changed substantially in recent decades. Understanding the causes is challenging because improvements in water quality have coincided with climatic variations over this period. Using data covering >2300 rivers and 21 years (1991-2011) across England and Wales, we analysed family-level distributions and nationwide trends in prevalence (proportion of sampling locations where an organism was present) to diagnose the causes of ecological change. Our aims were to: (i) reveal the taxa driving assemblage-level trends; (ii) identify the main changes in family-level prevalence and distribution patterns; and (iii) test whether changes were accounted for by improving water quality, increasing temperatures or variations in discharge. While previous analyses revealed increasing richness among British river invertebrates, a partial turnover of taxa is now evident. Two distinct components of temporal trend have comprised: (i) overall increases or decreases in taxon prevalence over 21 years, which correlated with pollution sensitivity and discharge; and (ii) short-term variations in prevalence that correlated primarily with temperature and nutrient concentrations. The longer-term changes in prevalence were reflected in expansions or contractions in families' distributions linked to water quality, with little evidence of shifts consistent with increasing temperatures. Although these monitoring data had limitations (e.g., family-level data, few headwaters), they provide no clear evidence of long-term climate effects on invertebrates; the one feature consistent with climate warming - a small northward expansion of the range of many taxa - was accounted for by large improvements in water quality in northern England. Nevertheless, changes linked to discharge and temperature over the shorter-term (<2 years) point to the climatic sensitivity of invertebrate communities. It is therefore likely that any long-term climatic changes since 1990 have been outweighed by the strength and geographical extent of the recovery from poor water quality.

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“…It was anticipated that the incorporation of indices based on improved scores in RICT would provide a more accurate and precise representation of environmental impacts on the invertebrate fauna and, consequently, better informed direction of resources for the remediation of problems. Although the revised scores derived by WH have been used elsewhere (for example, see Park et al, 2007;Song et al, 2006Song et al, , 2007Hassal et al, 2010;Dos Santos et al, 2011) they were never formally adopted by the regulatory authorities. However, many biologists within the Environment Agency of England and Wales (EA) felt that they better reflected the differential sensitivities of the taxa to the combined effects of organic pollution and other major pressures than the original scores.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Revision of the Biological Monitoring Working Party (Bmwp) Score System: Derivation of Present‐only and Abundance‐related Scores From Field Data

Paisley

Trigg

Walley

2013

River Research & Apps

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The Biological Monitoring Working Party (BMWP) score system was introduced in 1980 to provide an index of river water quality for England and Wales based on aquatic macro-invertebrates. The score allocated to each taxon was set by a group of expert river biologists based upon their collective experience of the taxon's sensitivity to organic pollution (Hawkes, 1997). This paper describes an objective reappraisal of these subjectively-derived scores through the statistical analysis of a large and comprehensive database of field samples. Using the analytical approach of Walley & Hawkes (1996, 1997

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The impact of climate-induced distributional changes on the validity of biological water quality metrics

Cited by 13 publications

References 17 publications

Dragonflies and damselflies (Odonata) in urban ecosystems: A review

Dragonflies and damselflies (Odonata) in urban ecosystems: A review

Linking interdecadal changes in British river ecosystems to water quality and climate dynamics

Revision of the Biological Monitoring Working Party (Bmwp) Score System: Derivation of Present‐only and Abundance‐related Scores From Field Data

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