Evaluating macroinvertebrate biological metrics for ecological assessment of streams in northern Portugal

Varandas, Simone; Cortes, Rui

doi:10.1007/s10661-009-0996-4

Cited by 19 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 76 publications

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“…Like metrics and indices, traits can be compared against reference conditions to assess the degree of change of an impacted system (e.g. Chessman et al, 2010;Varandas and Cortes, 2010;Ferreira et al, 2011;Brooks et al, 2011;Feio and Dolédec, 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Taxonomy, metrics or traits? Assessing macroinvertebrate community responses to daily flow peaking in a highly regulated Brazilian river system

et al. 2013

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Damming disrupts lotic continuity, creating a lentic water body upstream of the dam and a lotic stretch downstream that is highly vulnerable to temporal fluctuations in flow and physiochemical quality depending on the operational regime of the dam. Thus, an essential part of any dam operation programme must take into account a typologically suitable environmental flow regime, in order to maintain downstream structure and function. We assessed the seasonal impact of daily flow peaking regimes on the taxonomic composition, metrics and traits of the macroinvertebrate community in the lotic section situated downstream of the Itutinga reservoir on the Rio Grande in the state of Minas Gerais in southeast Brazil. The flow manipulation experiments were carried out in both wet (January) and dry periods (July) of 2010. The samplings were carried out in two hydraulic situations (fixed flow and daily flow peaking). Benthic macroinvertebrates and sediment were collected in three habitat types (backwater, fluvial beach and running water). Water variables were measured only in the fluvial beach habitat. Both water column and sediment variables downstream were heavily influenced by the retention capacity of the reservoir rather than the daily flow peak value. The trait approach was more sensitive than abundance and metrics and could detect the effects of daily flow peaking. The benthic macroinvertebrate communities sampled downstream of the Itutinga reservoir were more influenced by the sediment composition at each of the three studied habitats, than by the tested daily flow peaking. However, given the short timescale of this study, it may be difficult to the influence of these two interrelated factors. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Taxonomy, metrics or traits? Assessing macroinvertebrate community responses to daily flow peaking in a highly regulated Brazilian river system

et al. 2013

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“…The importance of using macroinvertebrates as indicators of running waters is emphasized in numerous studies (Wright, 1995;Rosenberg et al, 2000;Bunn and Davies, 2000;Alba-Tercedor et al, 2002;Oliveira and Cortes, 2005;Oliveira and Cortes, 2006;Alonso, 2006;Oscoz et al, 2006;Varandas and Cortes, 2010). All the evaluated metrics -EPT taxa, IPtI N index, diversity of Shannon-Weaner and Evenness indices -resulted good candidates to assess land use conflicts (Fig.…”

Section: Biological Condition Of Surface Watersmentioning

confidence: 95%

Impacts of land use conflicts on riverine ecosystems

et al. 2015

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Starting from a diagnosis of areas with different environmental land use conflicts located in various rural sub-basins of the River Sordo basin (northern Portugal), the present study analysed the ecological quality of surface water in small mountain streams to establish a relationship between land use, water and aquatic biota. Environmental land use conflicts were set up on the basis of land use and land capability maps, coded as follows: 1-agriculture, 2-pasture, 3-pasture/forest, and 4-forest. Land capability was assessed by the ruggedness number methodology (RN). The difference between the codes of capability and use defines a conflict class, where a negative or null value means no conflict and a positive value means class i conflict. Within and without the conflict areas, ecological quality of surface water was evaluated by the metrics EPT taxa, IPtI N index, diversity of Shannon-Wiener and Evenness index. Macroinvertebrate communities are strongly correlated to conflict classes, because sites without (reference sites) or with minor physicochemical and hydromorphological degradation (Class 1) presented high diversity, evenness, EPT taxa and IPtI N index, while more impacted sites (Class 2) presented an ecological status not fulfilling the demands of the European Union Water Framework Directive (2000/60). The present study indicates a significant impact of land use on water quality which has straight influence on the distribution of biota, emphasizing the key role of riparian vegetation in the conservation of aquatic ecosystems. The highest impacts on macroinvertebrate assemblages were associated with changes in water quality parameters such as temperature, oxygen saturation (%), turbidity, total suspended solids (TSS), nitrates, phosphates and sulphates, conductivity and dissolved oxygen, as well as hydromorphological alterations driven by the total absence of riparian vegetation as a consequence of terrace building, agriculture and the resectioning/reinforcement of the banks associated with the culture of vine. ms_Tables

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“…Multimetric indices are powerful tools for establishing the consequences of human activities. These effects may include a high amount of specific and blurred disturbances (nonpoint pollutant discharge), which encompass impacts arising from agriculture, grazing, deforestation, physical alterations of river or bank habitats, damps, sewage discharges, urban areas, and mining [36,37]. These indices can be applied in several animal assemblages, plant communities, and ecosystems, including terrestrial, marine, and freshwater environments [35].…”

Section: Indicators Of Aquatic Ecosystem Healthmentioning

confidence: 99%

Macroinvertebrates and Fishes as Bioindicators of Stream Water Pollution

Fierro¹,

Valdovinos²,

Vargas‐Chacoff³

et al. 2017

Water Quality

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Freshwater ecosystems worldwide have been progressively deteriorated during the past decades due to an increasing human pressure that has lead to a decrease in aquatic biodiversity. Among the human activities of high impact on freshwater ecosystems is the land-use change, principally from native forests to agriculture. To evaluate the impacts of human activities on water quality, a traditional approach has considered the use of single physical-chemical parameters. However, this approach may be insufficient to fully assess the impact of these human activities on freshwaters. Therefore, there is a need for alternative tools such as the indices of biotic integrity that may provide a complement to traditional approaches. In the literature, there are several examples of biotic indicators that have shown promising results in evaluating water quality including the use of macroinvertebrates and fish diets. Here, we provide a review of the indicators of biotic integrity that included fish assemblages as well as macroinvertebrates as bioindicators. We identify pros and cons of using aquatic communities as indicators of water quality. Finally, we develop a procedure that combines fish and macroinvertebrate assemblages as bioindicators and discuss their effectiveness using illustrative examples from streams under several agricultural uses in the Mediterranean region of Chile.

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Evaluating macroinvertebrate biological metrics for ecological assessment of streams in northern Portugal

Cited by 19 publications

References 76 publications

Taxonomy, metrics or traits? Assessing macroinvertebrate community responses to daily flow peaking in a highly regulated Brazilian river system

Taxonomy, metrics or traits? Assessing macroinvertebrate community responses to daily flow peaking in a highly regulated Brazilian river system

Impacts of land use conflicts on riverine ecosystems

Macroinvertebrates and Fishes as Bioindicators of Stream Water Pollution

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