Responses of fish and invertebrates to floods and droughts in Europe

Abstract

Floods and droughts, two opposite natural components of streamflow regimes, are known to regulate population size and species diversity. Quantifiable measures of these disturbances and their subsequent ecological responses are needed to synthesize the knowledge on flow-ecosystem relationships. This study for the first time combines the systematic review approach used to collect evidence on the ecological responses to floods and droughts in Europe with the statistical methods used to quantify the extreme events severity. Out of 854 publications identified in literature search, 54 papers were retained after screening and eligibility checks, providing in total 82 case studies with unique extreme event-ecological response associations for which data were extracted. In this way, a database with metadata of case studies that can be explored with respect to various factors was constructed. This study pinpointed the research gaps where little evidence could be synthesized, for example, drought event studies and fish studies. It was demonstrated that in many cases the studied metrics (abundance, density, richness, and diversity) showed statistically significant decreases after or during the event occurrence. The responses in invertebrate density and richness were in general more negative than the corresponding responses in fish.Biota resistance to floods was found to be lower than the resistance to droughts. The severity of extreme events was not found to be an important factor influencing ecological metrics, although this analysis was often hampered by insufficient number of case studies. Conceivably, other factors could mask any existing relationships between disturbance severity and biotic response.

Effects of hydraulic engineering restoration measures on invasive gobies in a large river (Danube, Austria)

“…The actual response of the fish community to floods is, however, ambiguous (Piniewski et al 2017). Several studies reported that non-native species showed the most negative response to floods, which is usually explained by a lack of adaptation to flood regimes (Deboer et al 2011;Piniewski et al 2017). The non-native species in these studies were primarily salmonids, though.…”

“…benthic, rocky habitats), were found to be not affected by floods or even increased in abundance afterwards (Deboer et al 2011;Jurajda et al 2006). Less is known on the effect of floods on early developmental stages, which appears to be also very variable and species-specific (Jurajda et al 2006;Piniewski et al 2017). There is indication that gobies react to perturbations by adapting life-history-traits, for instance by increasing oocytes number (Hôrková and Kováč 2015).…”

“…11,000 m 3 s -1 (measured in Vienna), was the most severe flood since centuries (Blöschl et al 2013), therefore it is plausible that it affected goby (and other species) abundances. The actual response of the fish community to floods is, however, ambiguous (Piniewski et al 2017). Several studies reported that non-native species showed the most negative response to floods, which is usually explained by a lack of adaptation to flood regimes (Deboer et al 2011;Piniewski et al 2017).…”

The role of floods and droughts on riverine ecosystems under a changing climate

“…However, the conceptual model in Figure is generic and some studies have found different results for individual cases (Piniewski et al, ). One of the more significant covariates causing such deviations is the morphological variability of rivers and floodplains.…”

Effects of flood disturbance on the cohort structure of the riverine mayfly Ephemera orientalis (Ephemeroptera: Ephemeridae) in the Han River in Seoul, Korea

“…; Maier ; Pupilli & Puig ; Suren & Jowett ; Death ; Molineri ; Lee & Bae ; Piniewski et al . ; Kim et al . ).…”