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Miliša M, Stubbington R, Datry T, Cid N, Bonada N, Šumanović M, Milošević D. Taxon-specific sensitivities to flow intermittence reveal macroinvertebrates as potential bioindicators of intermittent rivers and streams. Sci Total Environ 2022; 804:150022. [PMID: 34517322 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.150022] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/24/2021] [Revised: 08/25/2021] [Accepted: 08/25/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
As complex mosaics of lotic, lentic, and terrestrial habitats, intermittent rivers and ephemeral streams (IRES) support high biodiversity. Despite their ecological importance, IRES are poorly represented in routine monitoring programs, but recent recognition of their considerable-and increasing-spatiotemporal extent is motivating efforts to better represent IRES in ecological status assessments. We examine response patterns of aquatic macroinvertebrate communities and taxa to flow intermittence (FI) across three European climatic regions. We used self-organizing map (SOM) to ordinate and classify sampling sites based on community structure in regions with continental, Mediterranean and oceanic climates. The SOM passively introduced FI, quantified as the mean annual % flow, and visualized its variability across classified communities, revealing a clear association between community structure and FI in all regions. Indicator species analysis identified taxa indicative of low, intermediate and high FI. In the continental region, the amphipod Niphargus was indicative of high FI and was associated with groundwater-fed IRES, whereas indicators of Mediterranean IRES comprised Odonata, Coleoptera and Heteroptera taxa, which favor lentic conditions. In the oceanic region, taxa indicative of relatively high FI included leuctrid stoneflies and a limnephilid caddisfly, likely reflecting the colonization of IRES by aerial adults from nearby perennial reaches. The Diptera families Chironomidae and Simuliidae showed contrasting FI preferences among regions, reflecting environmental heterogeneity between regions and the coarse taxonomic resolution to which these organisms were identified. These region-specific community and taxon responses of aquatic biota to FI highlight the need to adapt standard biotic indices to enable effective ecological status assessments in IRES.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marko Miliša
- Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb, Rooseveltov trg 6, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia
| | - Rachel Stubbington
- School of Science and Technology, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham NG11 8NS, UK
| | - Thibault Datry
- INRAE, UR RiverLy, Centre de Lyon-Villeurbanne, 5 rue de la Doua CS20244, 69625 Villeurbanne Cedex, France
| | - Núria Cid
- INRAE, UR RiverLy, Centre de Lyon-Villeurbanne, 5 rue de la Doua CS20244, 69625 Villeurbanne Cedex, France; FEHM-Lab (Freshwater Ecology, Hydrology and Management), Departament de Biologia Evolutiva, Ecologia i Ciències Ambientals, Facultat de Biologia, Institut de Recerca de la Biodiversitat (IRBio), Universitat de Barcelona (UB), Diagonal 643, 08028 Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
| | - Núria Bonada
- FEHM-Lab (Freshwater Ecology, Hydrology and Management), Departament de Biologia Evolutiva, Ecologia i Ciències Ambientals, Facultat de Biologia, Institut de Recerca de la Biodiversitat (IRBio), Universitat de Barcelona (UB), Diagonal 643, 08028 Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
| | - Marina Šumanović
- Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb, Rooseveltov trg 6, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia
| | - Djuradj Milošević
- Department of Biology and Ecology, Faculty of Sciences and Mathematics, University of Niš, Višegradska 33, 18000 Niš, Serbia.
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