Interacting influences of climate factors and land cover types on the distribution of caddisflies (Trichoptera) in streams of a central European low mountain range

Abstract

Effects of various climatic factors, altitude and land cover types on the distribution of eight caddisfly species were modelled from occurrence data by the use of the maximum entropy method. The predicted habitat use and the most contributing environmental factors differed considerably among species. Those differences of responses may be a basis for changes of assemblage structures with climate changes. Precipitation in late spring to early summer, minimum temperatures in the second half of the year, and temperature seasonality, or other bioclimatic factors that give information about the temporal stability of temperatures (‘diurnal range’, ‘isothermality’), were key climate factors influencing the distribution of most of the studied species. Therefore, climate change may affect Trichoptera assemblages not only by the height of mean temperatures but also by temperature variability. Land cover types contributed to the development of distribution models for several caddisfly species. Forests promoted most of the species, whereas cultivated and managed areas were less preferred. Few species concentrated on individual land cover types, e.g. Wormalida occipitalis on coniferous forest. Therefore, different adaptations of caddisfly species to land cover types, in addition to climatic factors, seam to occur, and are discussed to facilitate niche partitioning. Environmental variables that were observed to affect the distribution of caddisflies, i.e. temperature, precipitation, and vegetation, may interact with each other. Climate changes may influence caddisflies not only via temperature changes, but by related changes of precipitation regimes, and by a long‐term change of vegetation types, e.g. tree species predominant in forests.

Comparative proteomics of stenotopic caddisfly Crunoecia irrorata identifies acclimation strategies to warming

“…Springs in Central Europe have relatively stable environmental conditions, including temperature (Cantonati, Füreder, Gerecke, Jüttner, & Cox, ). Spring‐dwelling caddisflies (order Trichoptera) are the most diverse of the strictly aquatic insect orders (Morse, ) and function as bioindicators of freshwater quality and habitat integrity (Barquín & Scarsbrook, ; De Moor & Ivanov, ; Harper, Rosenberg, & Resh, ; Hogg & Williams, ; Kusch, ; Pereira, Cabette, & Juen, ). For example, the occurrence of Crunoecia irrorata positively correlates with the taxon richness of benthic macroinvertebrates, indicating high conservation value of the springs in which this species is present (Ilmonen, ; Rádková, Polášková, Bojková, Syrovátka, & Horsák, ; Rychła, Buczyńska, & Szczucińska, ).…”

Spatial variability of near-surface temperature over the coastal mountains in southern Chile (38°S)

“…The spatial distribution of near-surface air temperature (hereafter simply referred to as T ns ) over mountains is an important input to hydrological (Shamir and Georgakakos 2014), glaciological (Anslow et al 2008), and ecological (Kusch 2015) studies. While free-atmosphere temperature often decreases with altitude, temperature near the surface is strongly modified by diabatic heating (e.g., absorption of solar radiation at the surface) and airflow (e.g., katabatic winds and topographic waves) which, in turn, vary strongly over complex terrain and are modulated by synoptic disturbances (e.g., Whiteman 2000).…”

Environmental heterogeneity at different scales: key factors affecting caddisfly larvae assemblages in standing waters within a lowland river catchment

“…5B). The caddisfly faunas of agricultural and forest sub-catchments were clearly distinct, but this did not translate to the anticipated faunistic pattern induced by the land use gradient, in which higher correlation strength or higher faunistic indices would be typical of a more natural landscape (forest) than a modified one (agrocenosis), as claimed by Arscott et al (2003), Zhang et al (2012 or Kusch (2015). What is more interesting, such a pattern was observed in the case of the physicochemical variables considered in our data and in general in determination of water quality in Poland (Supplementary Tab.…”

“…The significance of broadleaf forests for aquatic invertebrates as an environmental factor has also been pointed out by Heino (2000), Mykrä et al (2004) and Cortes et al (2011). Kusch (2015) also emphasized that many caddisfly species have shown characteristic patterns in relation to this variable. On the other hand, dense forest patches may become a barrier for many adult caddisflies, and it should be emphasized that the forest parameter was significant only for the buffer zones level (0.5 km radius from the water body), while for the entire catchment no such relationship was found.…”

“…In recent years, however, the role of landscape features has gained in importance (Bis et al, 2000;Palmer et al, 2000;Mykrä et al, 2004;Bonada et al, 2005;Heino et al, 2008;Cortes et al, 2011;Aschonitis et al, 2016). This is aided by the development of GIS, which make it possible to fairly easily obtain an increasing amount of comparable information on landscape features at large scales (Galbraith et al, 2008;Heino et al, 2008;Johnson and Host, 2010;Ligeiro et al, 2013;Kusch, 2015).…”