Accounting for regional variation in both natural environment and human disturbance to improve performance of multimetric indices of lotic benthic diatoms

Tang, Tao; Stevenson, R. Jan; Infante, Dana M.

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.03.060

Cited by 32 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 62 publications

(85 reference statements)

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“…When bioassessments are performed at large scales, e.g., at regional or national scales [8,9], although both natural environmental factors (e.g., temperature, precipitation, geology, and soils) and anthropogenic stressors change significantly, stressors gradients are usually strong enough to drive changes in biological patterns. Thus, significant stressor-response relationships can be developed, and major stressors affecting lotic ecosystems can be effectively detected while accounting for variation in natural environmental factors [10,11]. In contrast, when bioassessments are performed at the river system scale, associations between biological patterns and stressors are difficult to identify, because small-scale spaces may share similar features with natural environmental factors, resulting in relatively homogeneous background water chemistry [12].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recognition of Patterns of Benthic Diatom Assemblages within a River System to Aid Bioassessment

Mao

Guo

Deng

et al. 2018

Water

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Benthic algae, especially diatoms, are commonly used to assess water quality in rivers. However, algal-based assessments are challenging at the river system scale because longitudinal variation in physical habitat conditions may obscure algal responses to changes in water quality. In the present study, we surveyed benthic diatoms and environmental variables from a mountainous Chinese river system. Hierarchical clustering, discrimination analysis, and indicator species analysis were used together to explore associations between distribution patterns of diatom assemblages and water quality variables. Study sites were clustered into five groups based on their diatom community composition, with sites grouped by the sampling months. Chemical oxygen demand (COD), elevation, and total nitrogen (TN) were the most important predictors for site classification. Site groups with higher elevations had higher TN concentrations; however, COD concentrations were higher in lower elevation groups. Moreover, COD concentrations significantly differed between temporally separated groups. In total, 49 indicator species were identified for individual groups, with most taxa indicating the eutrophic condition. Additionally, we found that European diatom indices are not closely associated with water quality variables. We conclude that the identification of algal patterns and their driving forces can provide valuable information to aid bioassessment at the river system scale.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recognition of Patterns of Benthic Diatom Assemblages within a River System to Aid Bioassessment

Mao

Guo

Deng

et al. 2018

Water

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“…There is an ongoing discussion on using planktonic or benthic diatoms to assess ecological conditions of streams and rivers (Kireta et al, 2012). Most studies on streams and wadable rivers have considered benthic diatoms because plankton is rare in such systems (Tang et al, 2016b;Pajunen et al, 2020). However, as planktonic and benthic algae seem to coexist in many rivers, our results may provide valuable information for such selection on which group to target the research efforts.…”

Section: Potential Applicationsmentioning

confidence: 90%

Differences in diversity and community assembly processes between planktonic and benthic diatoms in the upper reach of the Jinsha River, China

Song

Zhou

et al. 2022

Hydrobiologia

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Comparing the spatio-temporal patterns between planktonic and benthic diatoms is helpful to understand biodiversity patterns and drivers in rivers. However, such studies are still rare especially in mountain regions. We used a dataset collected in the upper reach of the Jinsha River in different seasons to explore biodiversity and assembly processes of planktonic and benthic diatom assemblages. We found that planktonic and benthic diatoms presented different seasonal variation in species richness and community composition. We also found evidence that planktonic and benthic diatoms were coupled especially in the summer. Planktonic diatom assemblages were mainly affected by spatial processes (mainly directional spatial processes) in both seasons.The effects of environmental processes were significant in the autumn, but were almost negligible in the summer. By comparison, benthic diatom assemblages were more affected by environmental factors than spatial processes. Our results suggested that mass effect and species sorting paradigms explained the assembly processes of planktonic and benthic diatom assemblages, respectively, but the explanatory powers of these two paradigms varied seasonally. To effectively monitor and assess river environmental conditions, we recommend using benthic algae as a biotic indicator group as they seem to better reflect environmental conditions in rivers.

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“…The algal periphyton system, in terms of similarity, diversity, evenness, structure, and dominance, has been employed in the construction of a variety of biological indices of both kinds [154][155][156]. There has been criticism regarding the processes, which reduces the indices to a single quantitative or qualitative result regarding its representational effect [157] due to seasonal variability [158][159][160][161] or regionality [162,163]. Despite the objections, this type of indices has been employed in many countries including the U.K., the U.S.A, Spain, and Canada.…”

Section: Biological Indicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Monitoring of Rivers and Streams Conditions Using Biological Indices with Emphasis on Algae: A Comprehensive Descriptive Review toward River Management

Atazadeh¹

2023

River Basin Management - Under a Changing Climate

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Algal communities are robust indicators of the effect and impact of environmental flows on river-dependent ecosystems as they deflect directly and indirectly those physical chemical and biological changes induced by environmental flows, which alter nutrient concentration, salinity, and alkalinity. Algal periphyton communities are the deterministic indicators of many aspects of ecological disturbance and its response, providing valuable evidential data at intertemporal scale of riverine status in terms of both health and quality, and their collection is comparatively simple, inexpensive, and environmental friendly.

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Accounting for regional variation in both natural environment and human disturbance to improve performance of multimetric indices of lotic benthic diatoms

Cited by 32 publications

References 62 publications

Recognition of Patterns of Benthic Diatom Assemblages within a River System to Aid Bioassessment

Recognition of Patterns of Benthic Diatom Assemblages within a River System to Aid Bioassessment

Differences in diversity and community assembly processes between planktonic and benthic diatoms in the upper reach of the Jinsha River, China

Monitoring of Rivers and Streams Conditions Using Biological Indices with Emphasis on Algae: A Comprehensive Descriptive Review toward River Management

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