Disentangling responses to natural stressor and human impact gradients in river ecosystems across Europe

STUBBINGTON, Rachel, Romain SARREMEJANE, Alex LAINI, Núria CID, Zoltán Szabolcs CSABAI, Judy ENGLAND, Antoni MUNNÉ, Thomas ASPIN, Núria BONADA, Daniel BRUNO, Sophie CAUVY-FRAUNIE, Richard CHADD, Claudia DIENSTL, Pau Fortuño ESTRADA, Wolfram GRAF, Cayetano GUTIÉRREZ-CÁNOVAS, Andy HOUSE, Ioannis KARAOUZAS, Andrés MILLÁN, Manuela MORAIS, Petr PAŘIL, Alex PICKWELL, Marek POLÁŠEK, David SÁNCHEZ-FERNÁNDEZ, Iakovos TZIORTZIS, Gábor VÁRBÍRÓ, Catherina VOREADOU, Emma WALKER-HOLDEN, James WHITE, Eleana KAZILA and Thibault DATRY. Disentangling responses to natural stressor and human impact gradients in river ecosystems across Europe. Online. Journal of Applied Ecology. Wiley, 2022, vol. 59, No 2, p. 537-548. ISSN 0021-8901. Available from: https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.14072. [citováno 2024-04-23]

Basic information

• Original name: Disentangling responses to natural stressor and human impact gradients in river ecosystems across Europe
• Authors: STUBBINGTON, Rachel (826 United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, guarantor), Romain SARREMEJANE (840 United States of America), Alex LAINI (380 Italy), Núria CID (724 Spain), Zoltán Szabolcs CSABAI (348 Hungary, belonging to the institution), Judy ENGLAND (826 United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland), Antoni MUNNÉ (724 Spain), Thomas ASPIN (826 United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland), Núria BONADA (724 Spain), Daniel BRUNO (724 Spain), Sophie CAUVY-FRAUNIE (250 France), Richard CHADD (826 United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland), Claudia DIENSTL (40 Austria), Pau Fortuño ESTRADA (724 Spain), Wolfram GRAF (40 Austria), Cayetano GUTIÉRREZ-CÁNOVAS (724 Spain), Andy HOUSE (826 United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland), Ioannis KARAOUZAS (300 Greece), Andrés MILLÁN (724 Spain), Manuela MORAIS (620 Portugal), Petr PAŘIL (203 Czech Republic, belonging to the institution), Alex PICKWELL (826 United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland), Marek POLÁŠEK (203 Czech Republic, belonging to the institution), David SÁNCHEZ-FERNÁNDEZ (724 Spain), Iakovos TZIORTZIS (196 Cyprus), Gábor VÁRBÍRÓ (348 Hungary), Catherina VOREADOU (300 Greece), Emma WALKER-HOLDEN (826 United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland), James WHITE (826 United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland), Eleana KAZILA (300 Greece) and Thibault DATRY (250 France)
• Edition: Journal of Applied Ecology, Wiley, 2022, 0021-8901.

Other information

• Original language: English
• Type of outcome: Article in a journal
• Field of Study: 10617 Marine biology, freshwater biology, limnology
• Country of publisher: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
• Confidentiality degree: is not subject to a state or trade secret
• WWW: URL
• Impact factor: Impact factor: 5.700
• RIV identification code: RIV/00216224:14310/22:00119327
• Organization unit: Faculty of Science
• Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.14072
• UT WoS: 000722877400001
• Keywords in English: bioassessment; biomonitoring; climatic gradient; flow intermittence; intermittent river; macroinvertebrate; multiple stressors; resilience; resistance; temporary stream
• Tags: rivok
• Tags: International impact, Reviewed

Abstract

Rivers are dynamic ecosystems in which both human impacts and climate‐driven drying events are increasingly common. These anthropogenic and natural stressors interact to influence the biodiversity and functioning of river ecosystems. Disentangling ecological responses to these interacting stressors is necessary to guide management actions that support ecosystems adapting to global change. We analysed the independent and interactive effects of human impacts and natural drying on aquatic invertebrate communities—a key biotic group used to assess the health of European freshwaters. We calculated biological response metrics representing communities from 406 rivers in eight European countries: taxonomic richness, functional richness and redundancy, and two biomonitoring indices that indicate ecological status. We analysed metrics based on the whole community and a group of taxa with traits promoting resistance and/or resilience (‘high RR’) to drying. We also examined how responses vary across Europe in relation to climatic aridity. Most community metrics decreased independently in response to impacts and drying. A richness‐independent biomonitoring index (the average score per taxon; ASPT) showed particular potential for use in biomonitoring, and should be considered alongside new metrics representing high RR diversity, to promote accurate assessment of ecological status. High RR taxonomic richness responded only to impacts, not drying. However, these predictors explained little variance in richness and other high RR metrics, potentially due to low taxonomic richness. Metric responsiveness could thus be enhanced by developing region‐specific high RR groups comprising sufficient taxa with sufficiently variable impact sensitivities to indicate ecological status. Synthesis and applications. Metrics are needed to assess the ecological status of dynamic river ecosystems—including those that sometimes dry—and thus to identify priority sites requiring action to tackle the causes of environmental degradation. Our results inform recommendations guiding the development of such metrics. We propose concurrent use of richness‐independent ‘average score per taxon’ indices and metrics that characterize the richness of resistant and resilient taxa. We observed interactions between aridity, impacts and drying, highlighting that these new metrics should be region‐specific, type‐specific and adaptable, promoting their ability to inform management actions that protect biodiversity in river ecosystems responding to climate change.

Links

• GA20-17305S, research and development project: Name: Klimaticky podmíněná homogenizace vodních bezobratlých testovaná na třech modelových systémech a historických datech

Investor: Czech Science Foundation