Exploring longitudinal trends and recovery gradients in macroinvertebrate communities and biomonitoring tools along regulated rivers

Mellado‐Díaz, Andrés; Sánchez-González, Jorge Rubén; Guareschi, Simone; Magdaleno, Fernando; Velasco, Manuel Toro

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.133774

Cited by 41 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 83 publications

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“…We found a strong focus on just six stressor pairs. Considering that nutrient enrichment is a widespread stressor in agricultural and urban areas (Birk et al, 2020;Monteagudo et al, 2016), the study of its combinations along with other common Iberian stressors (hydrological, salinity or toxic stresses) (Estévez et al, 2019;Kuzmanovic et al, 2017;Mellado-Díaz et al, 2019) can help to better target mitigation measures and to improve the ecological status of Iberian waterbodies. Since the Iberian Peninsula holds some of the most arid landscapes in Europe and climate change is predicted to intensify this situation (de Luis et al, 2010), it is of paramount importance to understand how the combination of thermal × hydrological stress can alter Iberian freshwater ecosystems.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multiple-stressors effects on Iberian freshwaters: A review of current knowledge and future research priorities

Gutiérrez‐Cánovas¹,

Arias-Real²,

Bruno³

et al. 2022

Limnetica

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Freshwater ecosystems are exposed to an increasing number of stressors, challenging their biomonitoring and management. Despite recent advances in multiple-stressor research, regional-scale assessments in areas with high freshwater biodiversity and increasing anthropogenic pressure are urgently needed. We reviewed 61 studies focused on freshwater individuals, populations and communities from the Iberian Peninsula to (i) quantify the frequency of experimental approaches used (manipulative, observational), aquatic systems, biological organization levels, and types of organisms and modelled responses, (ii) identify key individual stressors and the frequency of significant positive (increase in response magnitude) and negative (decrease) effects and (iii) determine types of interacting stressors and the frequency of their combined effects. Our dataset comprised 409 unique responses to 13 types of individual stressors, 34 stressor pairs and 12 high-order interactions (3- and 4-way). We found a higher prevalence of manipulative (85 %) respect to observational studies, and a greater focus on lotic systems (59 %) and heterotrophic organisms (58 %). The most studied stressors were nutrient (Nutr), thermal (Therm), hydrologic (Hydr), ultraviolet radiation (UVR), toxic (Toxic) and salinity (Sal) stress and land-use pressure. Individual stressors showed a higher proportion of negative (34 %) than positive effects (26 %). Nutr × UVR, Toxic × Toxic, Therm × Toxic, Hydr × Toxic, Sal × Therm, and Nutr × Therm were the most studied stressor pairs. Non-interactive (50 %) and interactive responses (50 %) were balanced. Antagonistic effects (18 %) were slightly more common than synergisms (15 %), reversal or opposing (13 %) and high-order interactions (4 %). Such proportions varied within experimental approaches, biological organization levels and organism types. Our findings are helpful to manage certain stressor combinations in Iberian freshwaters. Further efforts in Iberian multiple-stressor research should be directed to (i) intensify the study of lentic systems, (ii) explore more observational data, (iii) autotrophic organisms and (vi) biodiversity-ecosystem functioning responses, and (v) cover a wider range of stressors and (vi) more complex interacting stressor scenarios.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multiple-stressors effects on Iberian freshwaters: A review of current knowledge and future research priorities

Gutiérrez‐Cánovas¹,

Arias-Real²,

Bruno³

et al. 2022

Limnetica

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“…Ward and Stanford (1995) proposed the "Serial Discontinuity Concept" to assess the effects of lentic water bodies on the downstream reaches of a watercourse. This concept highlights how the effects of these lentic habitats on the benthic communities and ecosystem processes vary according to their longitudinal position in the river network, which has been extensively applied to evaluate the effects of anthropogenic water bodies, such as dams and reservoirs (Ellis and Jones 2013;Guareschi et al 2014;Mellado-Díaz et al 2019).…”

Section: The Role Of Natural Discontinuitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The River Continuum Concept: lessons from the past and perspectives for the future

Doretto

Piano

Larson

2020

Can. J. Fish. Aquat. Sci.

104

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The River Continuum Concept (RCC) is a milestone in stream ecology because of its comprehensive evaluation of the structure and function of lotic ecosystems. Linking stream physical and geo-morphological attributes with patterns in biodiversity, functional traits, and metabolism dynamics, this theory describes downstream gradients in community composition and ecosystem processes. The aim of this review is to evaluate how the RCC, 40 years from its publication in the Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, has influenced basic and applied research in stream ecology, focusing on the most important contributions and recent developments. This work puts into perspective the historical significance of the RCC in the scientific process and integrates past and recent theories including metacommunity and metaecosystem theories and the river network perspective to predict taxonomic and functional diversity of benthic communities. Thus, this review provides a unifying overview of the historical context of the field for exploring basic and applied ecological questions to the next generation of stream ecologists.

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“…The significance of such data for biomonitoring is tremendous: ecological metrics such as the RETI, or proportions of certain feeding guilds or taxa associated with specific hydromorphological conditions are widely used and enable differentiation of stressors [39,46,49]. In combination with properly defined reference conditions these high-resolution modules and metrics can be used to detect impact of organic pollution, hydromorphological alteration, or changes in land use relating to allochthonous matter input (e.g., large woody debris) [41,48,51,52]. In addition, metrics focusing on phenology of aquatic insects or reproductive strategies of the bioindicator communities can be used to assess long-term stability of an ecosystem and can be calibrated to detect impact of unrecorded disturbance events or the relatively slow response to climate change [53,54].…”

Section: Advantages Of Different Module and Metric Typesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing the Ecological Status of European Rivers and Lakes Using Benthic Invertebrate Communities: A Practical Catalogue of Metrics and Methods

Vitecek

Johnson

Poikāne

2021

Water

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The Water Framework Directive requires that the ecological status of surface waters be monitored and managed if necessary. A central function in ecological status assessment has the Biological Quality Elements—organisms inhabiting surface waters—by indicating human impact on their habitat. For benthic invertebrates, a wide array of national methods are used, but to date no comprehensive summary of metrics and methods is available. In this study, we summarize the benthic invertebrate community metrics used in national systems to assess the ecological status of rivers, (very) large rivers, and lakes. Currently, benthic invertebrate assemblages are used in 26 national assessment systems for rivers, 13 assessment systems for very large rivers, and 21 assessment systems for lakes in the EU. In the majority of systems, the same metrics and modules are used. In the Red Queen’s race of ecosystem management this may be a disadvantage as these same metrics and module likely depict the same stressors but there is growing evidence that aquatic ecosystems are subject to highly differentiated, complex multiple stressor impacts. Method development should be fostered to identify and rank impacts in multi-stressor environments. DNA-based biomonitoring 2.0 offers to detect stressors with greater accuracy—if new tools are calibrated.

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Exploring longitudinal trends and recovery gradients in macroinvertebrate communities and biomonitoring tools along regulated rivers

Cited by 41 publications

References 83 publications

Multiple-stressors effects on Iberian freshwaters: A review of current knowledge and future research priorities

Multiple-stressors effects on Iberian freshwaters: A review of current knowledge and future research priorities

The River Continuum Concept: lessons from the past and perspectives for the future

Assessing the Ecological Status of European Rivers and Lakes Using Benthic Invertebrate Communities: A Practical Catalogue of Metrics and Methods

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