Harmonizing and Searching Macroinvertebrate Trait Information in Alpine Streams: Method and Application–A Case Study in the Three Parallel Rivers Region, China

Abstract

The traits of organisms provide critical information for understanding changes in biodiversity and ecosystem function at large scales. In recent years, trait databases of macroinvertebrates have been developed across continents. Anyone using different databases to search for traits will encounter a series of problems that lead to uncertain results due to the inconsistency of the trait information. For example, traits for a particular macroinvertebrate taxon may be inconsistent across databases, coded in inconsistent ways, or cannot be found. However, most of the current studies do not clearly state their solutions, which seriously hinders the accuracy and comparability of global trait studies. To solve these problems, we collected representative databases from several continents, including the United States, Europe, South Africa, Bolivia, Australia, and New Zealand. By comparing the inconsistency of similar trait classifications in the nine databases, we harmonized 41 of these grouping features. We found that these databases differed widely in terms of the range and category of traits. And the method of coding traits also varies from database to database. Moreover, we showed a set of trait searching rules that integrate trait databases from different regions of the world, allowing traits to be identified more easily and uniformly using different trait databases worldwide. We also applied this method to determine the traits of 155 macroinvertebrate taxa in the Three Parallel Rivers Region (TPRR). The results showed that among a total of 155 macroinvertebrate taxa, the 41 grouping features of all genera were not fully identified, and 32 genera were not recorded (thus using family-level data). No trait information was found at all for two families, which contain two genera. This suggests that many macroinvertebrate taxa and their traits have not been fully studied, especially in those regions, including China, where macroinvertebrate trait studies are lagging. This inadequacy and unevenness have seriously hindered the study and development of macroinvertebrate trait and functional diversity worldwide. Our results complement the information on stream macroinvertebrate traits in the TPRR, a global biodiversity hotspot, and greatly promote the uniformity of global trait research and the accuracy and comparability of trait research in different regions.

Freshwater insect communities in urban environments around the globe: a review of the state of the field

“…Various databases have been developed to aid researchers in associating traits with taxa for North American lotic insects (Poff et al, 2006), freshwater insects of the United States (Twardochleb et al, 2021), European freshwater organisms (Schmidt-Kloiber and Hering, 2015), European dispersal traits of aquatic macroinvertebrates (Sarremejane et al, 2020), freshwater invertebrates in North America, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand (Kunz et al, 2022), macroinvertebrates of the Three Parallel Rivers Region in China (Ao et al, 2022), macroinvertebrates in South African rivers (Odume et al, 2018), and freshwater macroinvertebrates of New Zealand (Phillips and Smith, 2018). Several were utilized by the articles evaluated in this review.…”