Metacommunity Structures of Macroinvertebrates and Diatoms in High Mountain Streams, Yunnan, China

Kurthen, Angelika L.; He, Fengzhi; Dong, Xiaoyu; Maasri, Alain; Cai, Qinghua; Jähnig, Sonja C.

doi:10.3389/fevo.2020.571887

Cited by 8 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 70 publications

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“…Clementsian structures arise when communities are actually changing consistently through groups of species that respond in a similar way to environmental gradients 23 . These results are consistent with the previous reported that metacommunity structure of diatoms showed Clementsian in river-connected mountain stream 24 . According to the river continuum concept (RCC), the physical properties of the riverine ecosystem were determined by flowing water from upstream to downstream.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 94%

Water quality drives the regional patterns of an algal metacommunity in interconnected lakes

Kim

Ahn

Jeong

et al. 2021

Sci Rep

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The metacommunity approach provides insights into how the biological communities are assembled along the environmental variations. The current study presents the importance of water quality on the metacommunity structure of algal communities in six river-connected lakes using long-term (8 years) monitoring datasets. Elements of metacommunity structure were analyzed to evaluate whether water quality structured the metacommunity across biogeographic regions in the riverine ecosystem. The algal community in all lakes was found to exhibit Clementsian or quasi-Clementsian structure properties such as significant turnover, grouped and species sorting indicating that the communities responded to the environmental gradient. Reciprocal averaging clearly classified the lakes into three clusters according to the geographical region in river flow (upstream, midstream, and downstream). The dispersal patterns of algal genera, including Aulacoseira, Cyclotella, Stephanodiscus, and Chlamydomonas across the regions also supported the spatial-based classification results. Although conductivity, chemical oxygen demand, and biological oxygen demand were found to be important variables (loading > |0.5|) of the entire algal community assembly, water temperature was a critical factor in water quality associated with community assembly in each geographical area. These results support the notion that the structure of algal communities is strongly associated with water quality, but the relative importance of variables in structuring algal communities differed by geological regions.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 94%

Water quality drives the regional patterns of an algal metacommunity in interconnected lakes

Kim

Ahn

Jeong

et al. 2021

Sci Rep

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“…In many studies, biological methods are valuable for determining natural and anthropogenic influences on water resources and habitats because biota responds to stressors from multiple spatial or temporal scales (Weigel and Robertson, 2007;Resende et al, 2010;He et al, 2020;Kurthen et al, 2020). In addition, the use of aquatic organisms in ecological studies has proven more effective than using environmental variables alone, because the aquatic community integrates structural and functional characteristics and reflects the health of the studied streams (Bonada et al, 2006;He et al, 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Benthic Macroinvertebrates as Ecological Indicators: Their Sensitivity to the Water Quality and Human Disturbances in a Tropical River

et al. 2021

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Macroinvertebrate metrics are helpful tools for the assessment of water quality and overall aquatic ecosystem health. However, their degree of sensitivity and the most reliable metrics for the bioassessment program development are very poorly studied in Togo. This study aimed to test the sensitivity of metrics calculated at the family and genus levels. A total of 21 water quality parameters and macroinvertebrates' data were collected during three periods at 20 sampling sites within the Zio River. The canonical correspondence analysis (CCA), factor analysis (FA), and Spearman's correlation analysis were conducted on water quality parameters and macroinvertebrates' data. The results reveal that macroinvertebrate structure and composition were affected by water quality parameters related to human disturbances. In this study, three groups of macroinvertebrate communities were identified including sensitive taxa such as Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, Trichoptera, and Odonata (EPTO) taxa; the resistant or resilient taxa such as Oligochaeta, Hirudinea, Diptera, and Pulmonates (OHDP) taxa; and tolerant taxa such as Prosobranchia, Bivalvia, Lepidoptera, Heteroptera, and Coleoptera (PBLHC). All the 13 macroinvertebrate-based metrics were found to be sensitive in the detection of water quality and human disturbance gradients. However, metrics related to EPTO and the tolerance measure [multimetric index of the Zio River basin (MMIZB), Average Score per Taxon (ASPT), and Biological Monitoring Working Party (BMWP)] are the most robust in discrimination of pressure gradients. This study reveals that macroinvertebrates are sensitive and can be used for the bioassessment program development at the order, family, or genera taxonomic level.

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“…We ran a principal components analysis (PCA) for each network separately on our spatial variables of elevation, streamwise distance from headwaters, streamwise distance below upstream lakes, and upstream lake area. Upstream lake area can strongly influence dispersal throughout a river network, as the majority of larval species may not be able to move through large and deep lakes (Bagge, 1995; A. J. Brooks, Wolfenden, et al, 2017; Kurthen et al, 2020; Parisek, 2018). Distance from headwaters, distance below upstream lakes, and elevation all loaded on the first PC axis, which explained 60% of the spatial variation on average for all networks (Evo: 53%, Cascade: 66%, Bubbs: 45%, Rock: 75%) and described a gradient from spatially isolated sites, which were typically found high in the headwaters and close to larger, upstream lakes, to spatially connected sites, which were typically found downstream from the headwaters and downstream from lakes with smaller areas.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rethinking biodiversity patterns and processes in stream ecosystems

Green

Anderson

Herbst

et al. 2022

Ecological Monographs

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A major goal of community ecology is understanding the processes responsible for generating biodiversity patterns along spatial and environmental gradients.In stream ecosystems, system-specific conceptual frameworks have dominated research describing biodiversity change along longitudinal gradients of river networks. However, support for these conceptual frameworks has been mixed, mainly applicable to specific stream ecosystems and biomes, and these frameworks have placed less emphasis on general mechanisms driving biodiversity patterns. Rethinking biodiversity patterns and processes in stream ecosystems with a focus on the overarching mechanisms common across ecosystems will provide a more holistic understanding of why biodiversity patterns vary along river networks. In this study, we apply the theory of ecological communities (TEC) conceptual framework to stream ecosystems to focus explicitly on the core ecological processes structuring communities: dispersal, speciation, niche selection, and ecological drift. Using a unique case study from high-elevation networks of connected lakes and streams, we sampled stream invertebrate communities in the Sierra Nevada, California, USA to test established stream ecology frameworks and compared them with the TEC framework. Local diversity increased and β-diversity decreased moving downstream from the headwaters, consistent with the river continuum concept and the small but mighty framework of mountain stream biodiversity. Local diversity was also structured by distance below upstream lakes, where diversity increased with distance below upstream lakes, in support of the serial discontinuity concept. Despite some support for the biodiversity patterns predicted from the stream ecology frameworks, no single framework was fully supported, suggesting "context dependence." By framing our results under the TEC, we found that species diversity was structured by niche selection, where local diversity was highest in environmentally favorable sites. Local diversity was also highest in sites with small community sizes, countering the predicted effects of ecological drift. Moreover, higher β-diversity in the headwaters was influenced by dispersal and niche selection, where environmentally harsh and spatially isolated sites exhibit higher community variation. Taken together our results suggest that combining system-specific ecological frameworks with the TEC provides a

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Metacommunity Structures of Macroinvertebrates and Diatoms in High Mountain Streams, Yunnan, China

Abstract: High-Mountain Stream Metacommunity Structuring other. Our study provides substantial elements to further understand metacommunity structure and highlights the necessity of future research to reveal the underlying mechanisms of community structuring in these remote ecosystems.

Cited by 8 publications

References 70 publications

Water quality drives the regional patterns of an algal metacommunity in interconnected lakes

Water quality drives the regional patterns of an algal metacommunity in interconnected lakes

Benthic Macroinvertebrates as Ecological Indicators: Their Sensitivity to the Water Quality and Human Disturbances in a Tropical River

Rethinking biodiversity patterns and processes in stream ecosystems

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