Flow–ecology relationships are spatially structured and differ among flow regimes

Bruckerhoff, Lindsey A.; Leasure, Douglas R.; Magoulick, Daniel D.

doi:10.1111/1365-2664.13297

Cited by 30 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 61 publications

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“…Various studies have emphasised the importance of widely applicable flow-ecology relationships to underpin studies of riverine ecosystems (including regulated systems) at larger spatial scales (Webb et al, 2013;Bruckerhoff, Leasure & Magoulick, 2019). The current study demonstrated consistent responses of benthic diatom assemblages to water supply reservoirs in England, but also highlighted that the predictive power at the largest spatial scales was comparatively low.…”

Section: Study Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 50%

Diatoms as indicators of the effects of river impoundment at multiple spatial scales

Krajenbrink

Acreman

Dunbar

et al. 2019

PeerJ

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River impoundment constitutes one of the most important anthropogenic impacts on the World’s rivers. An increasing number of studies have tried to quantify the effects of river impoundment on riverine ecosystems over the past two decades, often focusing on the effects of individual large reservoirs. This study is one of the first to use a large-scale, multi-year diatom dataset from a routine biomonitoring network to analyse sample sites downstream of a large number of water supply reservoirs (n = 77) and to compare them with paired unregulated control sites. We analysed benthic diatom assemblage structure and a set of derived indices, including ecological guilds, in tandem with multiple spatio-temporal variables to disclose patterns of ecological responses to reservoirs beyond the site-specific scale. Diatom assemblage structure at sites downstream of water supply reservoirs was significantly different to control sites, with the effect being most evident at the regional scale. We found that regional influences were important drivers of differences in assemblage structure at the national scale, although this effect was weaker at downstream sites, indicating the homogenising effect of river impoundment on diatom assemblages. Sites downstream of reservoirs typically exhibited a higher taxonomic richness, with the strongest increases found within the motile guild. In addition, Trophic Diatom Index (TDI) values were typically higher at downstream sites. Water quality gradients appeared to be an important driver of diatom assemblages, but the influence of other abiotic factors could not be ruled out and should be investigated further. Our results demonstrate the value of diatom assemblage data from national-scale biomonitoring networks to detect the effects of water supply reservoirs on instream communities at large spatial scales. This information may assist water resource managers with the future implementation of mitigation measures such as setting environmental flow targets.

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Section: Study Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 50%

Diatoms as indicators of the effects of river impoundment at multiple spatial scales

Krajenbrink

Acreman

Dunbar

et al. 2019

PeerJ

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Various studies have emphasised the importance of widely applicable flow-ecology relationships to underpin studies of riverine ecosystems (including regulated systems) at larger spatial scales (Webb et al, 2013;Bruckerhoff et al, 2019). The current study demonstrated consistent responses of benthic diatom assemblages to water supply reservoirs in England, but also highlighted that the predictive power at the largest spatial scales was comparatively low.…”

Section: Study Implicationssupporting

confidence: 47%

Peer Review #1 of "Diatoms as indicators of the effects of river impoundment at multiple spatial scales (v0.1)"

2019

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

River impoundment constitutes one of the most important anthropogenic impacts on the World's rivers. An increasing number of studies have tried to quantify the effects of river impoundment on riverine ecosystems over the past two decades, often focusing on the effects of individual large reservoirs. This study is one of the first to use a large-scale, multi-year diatom dataset from a routine biomonitoring network to analyse sample sites downstream of a large number of water supply reservoirs (n = 77) and to compare them with paired unregulated control sites. We analysed benthic diatom assemblage structure and a set of derived indices, including ecological guilds, in tandem with multiple spatiotemporal variables to disclose patterns of ecological responses to reservoirs beyond the site-specific scale. Diatom assemblage structure at sites downstream of water supply reservoirs was significantly different to control sites, with the effect being most evident at the regional scale. We found that regional influences were important drivers of differences in assemblage structure at the national scale, although this effect was weaker at downstream sites, indicating the homogenising effect of river impoundment on diatom assemblages. Sites downstream of reservoirs typically exhibited a higher taxonomic richness, with the strongest increases found within the motile guild. In addition, Trophic Diatom Index (TDI) values were typically higher at downstream sites. Water quality gradients appeared to be an important driver of diatom assemblages, but the influence of other abiotic factors could not be ruled out and should be investigated further. Our results demonstrate the value of diatom assemblage data from national-scale biomonitoring networks to detect the effects of water supply reservoirs on instream communities at large spatial scales. This information may assist water resource managers with the future implementation of mitigation measures such as setting environmental flow targets.

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“…Because we were interested in using generalised linear mixed effect models as a variable reduction tool and were not interested in interactive effects, we only developed global, additive effect models for each response variable. To account for spatial autocorrelation in fish community structure responses to abiotic factors (Bruckerhoff et al., 2019), we included HUC level 10 catchment nested within major drainage basin as a random effect to control for spatial clumping of sites within catchments. Year was also included as a main effect in all models.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Disentangling effects of predators and landscape factors as drivers of stream fish community structure

et al. 2020

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Experimental and fine‐scale studies indicate predators can have strong effects on stream fishes. It is unclear, however, how predators interact with landscape factors to influence stream fish communities at scales relevant to management and conservation. Because predators and prey respond to environmental variability, measuring community responses to predators requires resolving the effects of abiotic factors on both predators and prey. We collected stream fish community data in the summers of 2017 and 2018 and paired structural equation modelling with multivariate methods to identify abiotic factors that influenced the distribution of a predatory fish, largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) and community structure of stream fish. We then compared how fish species richness and community composition responded to the presence of bass mediated by environmental factors. Probability of occurrence of bass increased with catchment area, while richness responded to both natural and anthropogenic characteristics of streams and their catchments. Contrary to our prediction, richness was higher at sites with bass and several species exhibited positive co‐occurrence and abundance patterns with bass, while only one species had a negative relationship. Higher diversity of stream fishes in the presence of bass highlights the difficulties in understanding the combined effects of predators and environmental variation, both natural and human induced, as drivers of community structure. We discuss several challenges to understanding the effects of predators in natural systems, including unmeasured environmental variability, mismatch of spatial and temporal scales, and context dependency of ecological responses.

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Flow–ecology relationships are spatially structured and differ among flow regimes

Cited by 30 publications

References 61 publications

Diatoms as indicators of the effects of river impoundment at multiple spatial scales

Diatoms as indicators of the effects of river impoundment at multiple spatial scales

Peer Review #1 of "Diatoms as indicators of the effects of river impoundment at multiple spatial scales (v0.1)"

Disentangling effects of predators and landscape factors as drivers of stream fish community structure

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