Global climate change in large European rivers: long‐term effects on macroinvertebrate communities and potential local confounding factors

Abstract

Aquatic species living in running waters are widely acknowledged to be vulnerable to climate-induced, thermal and hydrological fluctuations. Climate changes can interact with other environmental changes to determine structural and functional attributes of communities. Although such complex interactions are most likely to occur in a multiple-stressor context as frequently encountered in large rivers, they have received little attention in such ecosystems. In this study, we aimed at specifically addressing the issue of relative long-term effects of global and local changes on benthic macroinvertebrate communities in multistressed large rivers. We assessed effects of hydroclimatic vs. water quality factors on invertebrate community structure and composition over 30 years (1979-2008) in the Middle Loire River, France. As observed in other large European rivers, water warming over the three decades (+0.9 °C between 1979-1988 and 1999-2008) and to a lesser extent discharge reduction (-80 m(3) s(-1) ) were significantly involved in the disappearance or decrease in taxa typical from fast running, cold waters (e.g. Chloroperlidae and Potamanthidae). They explained also a major part of the appearance and increase of taxa typical from slow flowing or standing waters and warmer temperatures, including invasive species (e.g. Corbicula sp. and Atyaephyra desmarestii). However, this shift towards a generalist and pollution tolerant assemblage was partially confounded by local improvement in water quality (i.e. phosphate input reduction by about two thirds and eutrophication limitation by almost one half), explaining a significant part of the settlement of new pollution-sensitive taxa (e.g. the caddisfly Brachycentridae and Philopotamidae families) during the last years of the study period. The regain in such taxa allowed maintaining a certain level of specialization in the invertebrate community despite climate change effects.

Long-term effects of global and local changes on benthic macroinvertebrate communities in multi-stressed large rivers: the example of the Rhône River during the last 30 years

“…These results have confirmed the observations made in previous studies on the Upper Rhône: mainly psychrophilic individuals were observed during the first two periods (Daufresne et al, 2003;Souchon et al, 2011). Floury et al (2013) found the same trend in the Middle Loire River with a decrease Khalanski et al (2008) of a gradual increase in the average annual temperature along the Rhône River, with a greater shift in its downstream part. Some traits reacted more specifically along the entire river and could thus serve as indicators (i.e.…”

“…Water temperature has a fundamental role in the behaviour, growth and metabolism of aquatic organisms, but also in primary production, for example (Stenseth et al, 2002). This leads to significant changes in community structure and composition, especially among macroinvertebrate communities (Daufresne et al, 2004Durance andOrmerod, 2007, 2009;Floury et al, 2013). For several decades many large rivers around the world have been subject to numerous global and local stressors (climate change, river channelization, dams, urban and industrial inputs, land use of their catchment, etc.)…”

Premier inventaire des macro-invertébrés du fleuve Niger à Niamey comme bioindicateurs de la pollution urbaine et industrielle

“…Ces méthodes portent entre autres sur l'étude de la structure et de la composition des macro-invertébrés (Tumwesigye et al, 2000 ;Lomond & Colbo, 2000), l'utilisation des indices biotiques (Solimini et al, 2000 ;Lafont et al, 1991), l'utilisation des traits biologiques (Mondy et al, 2012 ;Vanden Bossche & Usseglio-Polatera, 2005 ;Statzner et al, 2004 ;Gayraud et al, 2003 ;UsseglioPolatera et al, 2000) et l'utilisation des analyses multivariées qui mettent en relation les facteurs environnementaux et les communautés de macro-inveré-brés (Floury et al, 2013 ;Piscart et al, 2005 ;Sarkar et al, 2005 ;Shivoga, 2001 ;Bauernfeind & Moog, 2000 ;Lancaster, 1999).…”

Severity Multipliers as a Methodology to Explore Potential Effects of Climate Change on Stream Bioassessment Programs

“…A number of studies focus on effects on either single species (e.g., [9,10]) or communities (e.g., [11]), lacking the step towards the interpretation of these changes in community metrics and associated assessment results. There are few studies on changes in assessment results related to climate change, and few available analyses of long-term data sets [11][12][13]. All mentioned approaches have their methodological challenges.…”

“…Pletterbauer et al [17] showed mean increases of the Fish Zone Index between 0.25 and 0.41 up to the 2080s and maximum values of 0.92 and 1.18 under three climate change scenarios as developed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Floury et al [11] showed a disappearance or decrease in invertebrate taxa typical from fast running, cold waters and appearance and increase of taxa typical from slow flowing or standing waters and warmer temperatures; that is, a shift towards a generalist and pollution tolerant assemblage after a 30-year time period including almost 1 • C warming. Domisch et al [21] used European wide species distributions models and showed a potential decrease in headwater taxa under future climates when considering the presence of species.…”