Ecological responses of aquatic macrophytes and benthic macroinvertebrates to dams in the Henares River Basin (Central Spain)

Benítez-Mora, Alfonso; Camargo, Julio A.

doi:10.1007/s10750-014-1816-6

Cited by 40 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…Following the river continuum concept (Vannote et al, 1980) and the serial discontinuity concept proposed by Ward and Stanford (1983), a large body of literature has outlined the contribution of river fragmentation to fish population dynamics and population viability as well as to macroinvertebrate community patterns (Guareschi et al, 2014;Peacock et al, 2016). The relationships between river primary producers and riverbed features, such as damming, have instead received a limited amount of attention, especially in lowland, highly modified, rivers (Benítez-Mora and Camargo, 2014;Ceschin et al, 2015;Bolpagni et al, 2015;Bolpagni and Laini, 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fragmentation and groundwater supply as major drivers of algal and plant diversity and relative cover dynamics along a highly modified lowland river

Bolpagni

Racchetti

Laini

2016

Science of The Total Environment

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fragmentation and groundwater supply as major drivers of algal and plant diversity and relative cover dynamics along a highly modified lowland river

Bolpagni

Racchetti

Laini

2016

Science of The Total Environment

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“…Hydroelectric power plants require dams built along rivers to stack water creating reservoirs that alter the water temperature of rivers. Such reservoir-induced alterations in temperature have a marked effect on macroinvertebrate communities2430313233. The increased temperature could be used to experimentally evaluate the impact of warming on insect phenology2434.…”

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confidence: 99%

Increased temperature delays the late-season phenology of multivoltine insect

Głazaczow

Orwin

Bogdziewicz

2016

Sci Rep

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We analyzed the impact of increased water temperature on the late-season phenology of the mayfly (Baetis liebenauae). The River Gwda, unlike two other examined rivers (controls), has reservoirs along its length and thus, higher water temperature. Elevated water temperature prolonged summer diapause of the mayfly and shifted its life cycle to the later autumn: the last generation of mayflies started development later in the Gwda than in the control rivers. This translated into terrestrial stages (subimagos) of the insect being more abundant at the water surface in the late autumn in the Gwda river than in the control rivers. The low water temperature in the late autumn hampers subimagos emergence from the water surface. Thus, the altered insect phenology at Gwda resulted in a largely lost generation. However, the effect of reservoirs on the river water temperature was context-dependent, with the heating effect (and the impact on mayfly phenology) weaker in the year with lower average air temperature. In summary, warming blurred the environmental cue used by mayflies to tune their phenology, which resulted in a developmental trap. Since the projections of increases in global temperatures reach even 6.4 °C, reported mechanisms will potentially also occur in non-transformed watercourses.

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“…3 Variations in species richness, total coverage and evenness in macrophyte assemblages between the upstream (U) and downstream (D) sides of river dams indicate that the effects of river regulation on macrophyte assemblages are highly variable from site to site, without a clear overall trend. It is known that biotic responses to river regulation may vary considerably according to river typologies and the characteristics of the dams (Petts 1984;Rehn 2009;Benítez-Mora and Camargo 2014), and this study demonstrates that the effects on macrophytes also vary among dam sites. Moreover, we generally found that dam effects were overwhelmed by the overall characteristics of sampling sites.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 53%

Response of macrophyte communities to flow regulation in mountain streams

Abati

Minciardi

Ciadamidaro

et al. 2016

Environ Monit Assess

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River macrophytes are widely used in freshwater ecosystem assessment because of their sensitivity to anthropogenic pressures, even if there are only a few studies that investigated how macrophytes respond to water regime alterations. In this study, we analyzed the effects of dams on river macrophyte communities through a comparison between upstream and downstream sides from 18 dams located in Alps and Apennines. A co-inertia analysis and a Mantel test were applied to assess if the analysis of environmental parameters could be effective in predicting macrophyte community structure. We analyzed morphological and physicochemical inter-site differences and tested the influence of dams on various aspects of community structure (composition, richness, diversity, dominance, coverage) using multivariate randomized block permutation procedure. Plant similarity between sites was evaluated at the level of phylum, and indicator species analysis was performed to identify the taxa most sensitive or tolerant to water regulation. We found that the overall environmental setting overwhelms the dam impact and that the influence of hydrological alteration became apparent when comparing upstream and downstream assemblages at the same dam. In particular, we found that most of taxa had a higher affinity with the downstream side and that in general, stream regulation increases plant richness and coverage, but reduces community evenness. Analyses based on higher taxonomic groups (phyla) demonstrated that this community can be effectively used in bioassessment even at phylum level analysis. In particular, we found that bryophytes, strictly linked with changes in substrate stability, show particular sensitivity to water regulation in mountain streams.

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Ecological responses of aquatic macrophytes and benthic macroinvertebrates to dams in the Henares River Basin (Central Spain)

Cited by 40 publications

References 38 publications

Fragmentation and groundwater supply as major drivers of algal and plant diversity and relative cover dynamics along a highly modified lowland river

Fragmentation and groundwater supply as major drivers of algal and plant diversity and relative cover dynamics along a highly modified lowland river

Increased temperature delays the late-season phenology of multivoltine insect

Response of macrophyte communities to flow regulation in mountain streams

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