Impact Evaluation of Riparian Vegetation on Aquatic Habitat Quality of Rivers

Štefunková, Zuzana; Neruda, Martin; Vasekova, Barbora

doi:10.1088/1755-1315/221/1/012111

Cited by 2 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…), or changes in river banks and channel. On the contrary, in areas of intense hydrological degradation, it is observed that QBR decreases, reinforcing the hypothesis that the hydromorphological degradation leads to the reduction of riparian vegetation [6].…”

Section: Watersupporting

confidence: 72%

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Pressures and Status of the Riparian Vegetation in Greek Rivers: Overview and Preliminary Assessment

et al. 2021

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Riparian zones play an important role in the ecological stability of rivers. In particular, the quality of the riparian vegetation is a significant component of the hydromorphological status. In Europe, the QBR index (Qualitat del Bosc de Ribera) and the River Habitat Survey (RHS) are commonly used for the qualitative assessment of the riparian vegetation. In this study, we estimated the QBR index and the Riparian Quality index, which is derived from the RHS method, for 123 river reaches of the National Monitoring Network of Greece. Our field work included the completion of RHS and QBR protocols, as well as the use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). The aim of this study is to assess the riparian vegetation status and to identify linkages with the dominant land uses within the catchment. Correlation analysis was used to identify the relationships between hydromorphological alterations and the degradation of the riparian vegetation, as well as their connection to land uses in the catchment area. Our results highlighted severe modifications of the riparian vegetation for the majority of the studied reaches. We also showed a differentiation of the QBR with respect to changes in the altitude and the land uses in the catchment area. Overall QBR reflects the variation in the riparian vegetation quality better than RQI. Our findings constitute an assessment of the status of the riparian zones in Greek rivers and set the basis for further research for the development of new and effective tools for a rapid quality assessment of the riparian zones.

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Section: Watersupporting

confidence: 72%

“…The riparian zones consist of a wide variety of structures. They are of great value to humans, as they are complex and extremely sensitive areas that connect the aquatic and the terrestrial ecosystems [6]. Through their functions, they strongly influence the biodiversity as well as the landscape of an area.…”

Section: Introduction 1riparian Zones and Wfdmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pressures and Status of the Riparian Vegetation in Greek Rivers: Overview and Preliminary Assessment

et al. 2021

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“…The relationship between riparian vegetation cover and fish size may be determined by the association between riparian vegetation and river slope. Rivers with higher slopes have short alluvial plains that allow for more riparian vegetation (Stefunkova, Neruda & Vasekova, 2019). However, the morphologies of Chilean fish species are not adapted to high-slope habitats (Arratia, 1987; Arratia, 1992); therefore, we presume that riparian vegetation acts as a proxy of habitat conditions adequate for smaller species.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing the effect of fish size on species distribution model performance in southern Chilean rivers

Zamorano

Labra

Villarroel³

et al. 2019

PeerJ

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Despite its theoretical relationship, the effect of body size on the performance of species distribution models (SDM) has only been assessed in a few studies, and to date, the evidence shows unclear results. In this context, Chilean fishes provide an ideal case to evaluate this relationship due to their short size (fishes between 5 cm and 40 cm) and conservation status, providing evidence for species at the lower end of the worldwide fish size distribution and representing a relevant management tool for species conservation. We assessed the effect of body size on the performance of SDM in nine Chilean river fishes, considering the number of records, performance metrics, and predictor importance. The study was developed in the Bueno and Valdivia basins of southern Chile. We used a neural network modeling algorithm, training models with a cross-validation scheme. The effect of fish size on selected metrics was assessed using linear models and beta regressions. While no relationship between fish size and the number of presences was found, our results indicate that the model specificity increases with fish size. Additionally, the predictive importance of Riparian Vegetation and Within-Channel Structures variables decreases for larger species. Our results suggest that the relationship between the grain of the dataset and the home range of the species could bias SDM, leading in our case, to overprediction of absences. We also suggest that evolutionary adaptation to low slopes among Chilean fishes increases the relevance of riparian vegetation in the SDMs of smaller species. This study provides evidence on how species size may bias SDM, which could potentially be corrected by adjusting the model grain.

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Impact Evaluation of Riparian Vegetation on Aquatic Habitat Quality of Rivers

Cited by 2 publications

References 9 publications

Pressures and Status of the Riparian Vegetation in Greek Rivers: Overview and Preliminary Assessment

Pressures and Status of the Riparian Vegetation in Greek Rivers: Overview and Preliminary Assessment

Assessing the effect of fish size on species distribution model performance in southern Chilean rivers

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