Are Taxonomic Distinctness measures compliant to other ecological indicators in assessing ecological status?

Salas, F.; Patrício, Joana; Marcos, Concepción; Pardal, Miguel Ângelo; Pérez-Ruzafa, Ángel; Marques, João Carlos

doi:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2006.06.002

Cited by 39 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…Thus, in spite of the fact that richness and rarity show different patterns across the four habitats (which suggests that the information provided by them are complementary), both show a clear tendency to decrease under perturbation. Similarly, Salas et al. (2006) found that taxonomic distinctness measures of marine benthic communities were less sensitive than other diversity measures to the effects of eutrophication in coastal lagoons.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Can taxonomic distinctness assess anthropogenic impacts in inland waters? A case study from a Mediterranean river basin

et al. 2006

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1. It is increasingly recognised that adequate measures of biodiversity should include information on the 'relatedness' of species within ecological assemblages, or the phylogenetic levels at which diversity is expressed. Taxonomic distinctness measures provide a series of indices to achieve this, which are independent of sample size. Taxonomic distinctness has been employed widely in marine systems, where it has been suggested that this index can provide a reliable measure of anthropogenic impact. 2. We tested the behaviour of three related taxonomic distinctiveness indices (Average Taxonomic Distinctness, D + ; Variation in Taxonomic Distinctness, K + ; and Total Taxonomic Distinctness, sD + ) in relation to putative levels of anthropogenic impact in inland waters and their potential utility in environmental monitoring, using an extensive data set for aquatic beetles from the south-east of the Iberian Peninsula. 3. Taxonomic distinctness measures were not able to identify human disturbance effects and there were no clear relationships between these new biodiversity measures and the disturbance level recorded at individual localities. Furthermore, the taxonomic distinctness measures used were apparently less sensitive to the effects of anthropogenic impact than other diversity metrics, such as species richness and rarity. 4. We conclude that taxonomic distinctness indices may not always perform as well as other metrics in the assessment of environmental quality. In addition, taxonomic distinctness measure should be interpreted with caution, as their performance and ability to detect anthropogenic disturbance may depend on the phylogenetic structure of sampled taxa within a region, and their evolutionary and ecological history.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Can taxonomic distinctness assess anthropogenic impacts in inland waters? A case study from a Mediterranean river basin

et al. 2006

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“…TD was calculated as the mean taxonomic distance between all pairs of taxa, while TTD is a modification of species richness that incorporates family interrelatedness explicitly (Salas et al . ). We investigated the potential of established metrics of aquatic disturbance as indicators of WLF in lakes by focusing on two common metrics that have been shown to respond to a range of different pressures in both rivers and lakes (Wallace, Grubaugh & Whiles ; Sandin & Johnson ; Schmidt‐Kloiber et al .…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 97%

Quantifying ecological responses to amplified water level fluctuations in standing waters: an experimental approach

Evtimova

Donohue

2014

Journal of Applied Ecology

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Summary1. Global freshwater demand is increasing dramatically, with water withdrawal rates more than tripling in the last five decades. Consequently, alteration of water level regimes, particularly in the form of amplified water level fluctuations (WLF), is rapidly becoming one of the major disturbances of aquatic ecosystems globally. However, even though the impacts of WLF are likely to be strongest in littoral zones, little is known about their effects on the structure and functioning of littoral assemblages in standing water systems. 2. We established an experiment in large outdoor pond mesocosms to examine the effects of WLF on littoral assemblages and explore the potential for development of ecological indicators of WLF. 3. Water level fluctuations reduced benthic algal biomass and the density and taxonomic distinctness of benthic invertebrate assemblages. Both the taxonomic and trophic structure of benthic assemblages were altered significantly in ponds with WLF and homogenized along the depth gradient. 4. Synthesis and applications. Our results indicate that water level fluctuations (WLF) can reduce considerably the productivity and biological diversity of lake littoral zones. Given that the problem is likely to be exacerbated by predicted increases in climatic variability and enhanced demand for water and hydropower, our findings have important implications for the conservation and management of global aquatic biodiversity. We identified several specific ways that WLF modify littoral assemblages along the depth gradient. This ability to identify separate pressures is an important requirement of robust ecological assessment tools. This study confers potential for development of ecological indicators of WLF in standing waters, provides indication of sampling strategies to be employed and demonstrates the need to mitigate the most extreme water withdrawals.

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“…The importance of WLF for phylogenetic and taxonomic richness of algal and invertebrate assemblages was examined by quantifying each of their total phylogenetic diversity (PD), taxonomic distinctness (TD) and total taxonomic distinctness (TTD) using PRIMER ® 6.1.8. Phylogenetic diversity was calculated as the sum of the phylogenetic branch lengths among species (Faith, ), TD was calculated as the mean taxonomic distance between all pairs of taxa, while TTD is a modification of species richness that incorporates family inter‐relatedness explicitly (Clarke & Warwick, ; Salas et al ., ). Hierarchical Linnaean classification served as a proxy for cladograms and a basis for measuring relatedness.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Water‐level fluctuations regulate the structure and functioning of natural lakes

2015

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1. Despite becoming one of the main pressures on aquatic ecosystems globally, understanding of the ecological impacts of altered water-level regimes in lakes lags far behind that of other human disturbances (e.g. eutrophication, acidification). 2. We employed a multifaceted approach to explore the potential importance of water-level fluctuations (WLF) for the structure and functioning of littoral zones and multiple trait responses of primary producers and benthic consumers across a range of natural lakes. 3. We found that lakes with high WLF had significantly more coarse littoral substrata with less coverage of macrophyte vegetation in the shallows than in lakes with low WLF. Lakes with high WLF also had greater proportions of motile diatom species and omnivorous benthic invertebrates in shallow waters, altered taxonomic and trophic structure of benthic consumers and more homogeneous algal and benthic invertebrate assemblages. 4. Variation along the littoral depth gradient needs to be examined when assessing the impacts of hydrological pressures in lakes. We found that depth interacted with WLF in its effects on habitat structure and mediated the response of both producer and consumer benthic assemblages to WLF. 5. Our results indicate that amplified WLF significantly affect both the structure and functioning of lake ecosystems. Given the growing importance of WLF as an increasingly pervasive pressure on lake ecosystems worldwide, our findings have important implications for the conservation and management of global aquatic biodiversity. Inclusion of both biological traits and sampling along a depth gradient in existing and in future monitoring programmes could improve significantly the ability to detect and predict effects of altered patterns of WLF on lake ecosystems.

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Are Taxonomic Distinctness measures compliant to other ecological indicators in assessing ecological status?

Cited by 39 publications

References 28 publications

Can taxonomic distinctness assess anthropogenic impacts in inland waters? A case study from a Mediterranean river basin

Can taxonomic distinctness assess anthropogenic impacts in inland waters? A case study from a Mediterranean river basin

Quantifying ecological responses to amplified water level fluctuations in standing waters: an experimental approach

Water‐level fluctuations regulate the structure and functioning of natural lakes

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