Inter-annual patterns in the stability and persistence of stream macroinvertebrate communities: relationship with water physicochemical parameters

Abstract

The relationships between temporal patterns of macroinvertebrate community and water physicochemical parameters were investigated in the Xiangxi River, which is the largest tributary to the Three Gorges Reservoir (TGR) in Hubei province, China. The construction of the TGR has strongly impacted the Xiangxi River watershed, but inter-annual patterns in stream macroinvertebrate communities have not been examined. We sampled water and macroinvertebrates monthly from 2004 to 2006. We assessed the persistence (similarity between years of species assemblage) and stability (similarity between years with respect to relative abundance of species in the community) of the macroinvertebrate community by the Bray-Curtis distance. The relationship between changes in water physicochemical conditions and changes in community structure were assessed with linear regression. The results showed that both the physical and chemical conditions of the water differed significantly among years. Similarly, the macroinvertebrate community structure and composition were significantly different among years. The compositional persistence was positively and significantly related to the physical condition, supporting the Habitat Templet Theory and indicating the importance of physical habitat protection. This study provides information for environmental assessment, which can be used to develop sustainable management strategies.

Interannual Variation of Benthic Macroinvertebrate Communities at Long-Term Monitoring Sites Impacted by Human Activities: Implications for Bioassessment

“…We did not find interannual variations in the measured hydrologic and water quality parameters to be predictors of the observed changes in the bioassessment metrics. The lack of a relationship between the measured environmental parameters and community composition is not consistent with past studies, which have found changes in flow conditions and water chemistry to impact temporal variation in benthic invertebrate communities (e.g., [19,20,47]). A possible explanation for the difference between our study and past studies is that the widespread and long-term exposure the study streams have had to anthropogenic disturbance has removed all sensitive taxa from the regional species pool and thus the measured parameters did not impart significant stress on these remaining tolerant taxa.…”

The role of the hydrological cycle on the distribution patterns of fish assemblages in an Andean stream

“…Environments with a high frequency of hydrological disturbance (torrential rivers) or prolonged extreme flows (floods and droughts), however, could encourage local communities that are regulated by regional environmental variables. In fact, changes to species' relative abundance and persistence (presence or absence) may be caused by hydrologically extreme disturbances (Wang et al ., ). These disturbances would act as selective forces on species, alternately selecting those best adapted to a given condition.…”

The role of the hydrological cycle on the temporal patterns of macroinvertebrate assemblages in an Andean foothill stream in Colombia

“…Ríos-Touma et al (2009) suggest that although allochthonous organic matter (litter) inputs (used as shelter or food) depend on growing or transitional periods, their retention depends not only on the magnitude and variability of the discharge but also on the geomorphology of the river. Hydrological disturbances are events that affect assemblages according to the afore mentioned habitat characteristics, which cause changes to relative taxonomic abundance and persistence (presence/absence), selectively decreasing certain taxa (Hendricks, 1995, Swanson et al, 1998Lake, 2000, Wang et al, 2013. Likewise, ecosystem function can be altered, so that changes in the functional feeding groups (FFG) or life habit composition may also be used as indicators of ecosystem change and recovery after disturbances (Ramírez and Gutierrez-Fonseca, 2014).…”