The effect of drying up on macroinvertebrate communities in small streams of Central Europe

PAŘIL, Petr, Michal STRAKA, Lenka TAJMROVÁ, Světlana ZAHRÁDKOVÁ, Pavla ŘEZNÍČKOVÁ and Jan HELEŠIC. The effect of drying up on macroinvertebrate communities in small streams of Central Europe. In 39th IAD Conference, 21-24 August 2012, Szentendre/Hungary. 2012.

Basic information

• Original name: The effect of drying up on macroinvertebrate communities in small streams of Central Europe
• Name in Czech: Vliv vysychání malých vodních toků na společenstva vodních bezobratlých střední Evropy
• Authors: PAŘIL, Petr (203 Czech Republic, guarantor, belonging to the institution), Michal STRAKA (203 Czech Republic), Lenka TAJMROVÁ (203 Czech Republic, belonging to the institution), Světlana ZAHRÁDKOVÁ (203 Czech Republic, belonging to the institution), Pavla ŘEZNÍČKOVÁ (203 Czech Republic) and Jan HELEŠIC (203 Czech Republic, belonging to the institution).
• Edition: 39th IAD Conference, 21-24 August 2012, Szentendre/Hungary, 2012.

Other information

• Original language: English
• Type of outcome: Conference abstract
• Field of Study: 10600 1.6 Biological sciences
• Country of publisher: Hungary
• Confidentiality degree: is not subject to a state or trade secret
• RIV identification code: RIV/00216224:14310/12:00061240
• Organization unit: Faculty of Science
• Keywords (in Czech): sucho; bezobratlí; malé toky; Česká republika; species traits
• Keywords in English: drought; macroinvertebrates; small streams; Czech Republic; species traits

Abstract

Climate change has brought remarkable changes in hydrological regime over the last decades and lack of summer precipitation causes consequent periodical drying out of small streams also in Central Europe. Insufficient data from this region lead us to conduct the studies of intermittent stream in the Czech Republic, which were focused on drought-related ecological filters affecting aquatic macroinvertebrate communities. The extent of community impairment is related to abiotic parameters (e.g. refugia availability, water quality, frequency and regularity of desiccation etc.), as well as to biotic factors, namely individual “species traits” (recolonization capacity, aestivation, drought-resistant stages etc.). Duration and extent of drought determine the range of changes in key assemblages (e.g. EPT taxa), and the degree of dissimilarity comparing to permanent stream assemblages can indicate the extent of dry period in the history of a watercourse. Different approaches focused e.g. to species richness, density, presence/absence of indicator taxa or representation of selected species traits within community can be used to assess the drought impact. The aim of our current research is to describe basic mechanisms enabling survival of drought-resistant species in regularly dried up streams and evaluate the applicability of some of selected characteristics to drought indication.