Investigating the role of refuges and drift on the resilience of macroinvertebrate communities to drying conditions: An experiment in artificial streams

Flow intermittence occurs in an increasing number of streams, due to climate change, local land‐use alteration and water abstraction. In particular, droughts represent a new element in Alpine river regimes, and their ecological consequences are poorly explored. We here used artificial streams to investigate the resilience of macroinvertebrates to drought in Alpine streams based on the presence of pools (i.e., refuges) and drift (i.e., recolonization). Three flumes were selected: 1 with permanent flowing water (Control), whereas the other 2 (Drift+Pools, Only Drift) were subjected to 2 consecutive drought‐rewetting phases. Moreover, to better monitor the recolonization pattern by drift, quantitative samples of drifting taxa were collected using an additional flume (Incoming Drift). The effects of droughts on benthic invertebrate communities and their recovery were assessed in terms of composition, structure, diversity, and stability. Droughts dramatically reduced the taxa richness, especially with regard to the most sensitive and specialized macroinvertebrates, such as Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, and Trichoptera taxa. Macroinvertebrate assemblages of the flumes that experienced drying phases were dominated by few generalist taxa and showed a higher degree of dissimilarity. Overall, no significant differences were observed in relation to the presence of pools, suggesting a limited role of this habitat in the recovery process. This finding suggests that in shallow and fast‐flowing Alpine lotic ecosystems the drift rather than pool availability represents the main driver of the macroinvertebrate resilience to droughts and provides insights into factors that can facilitate the recovery of aquatic communities after droughts.     

Assessing the effectiveness of enhancement activities in urban streams: II. Responses of invertebrate communities

The effects of habitat enhancement on the invertebrate communities in five urban streams in Christchurch, New Zealand, were investigated. All streams underwent riparian planting, while extensive channel modifications were made at two streams, where a concrete dish channel and a wooden timber‐lined stream were removed and natural banks reinstated. Benthic invertebrates were collected before enhancement and 5 years after from the same locations. Invertebrates were also collected from control sites in each stream in 2001. Desired goals of enhancement activities included increasing the densities of mayflies and caddisflies, and decreasing densities of oligochaetes, snails and midges. Enhancement activities changed riparian vegetation and bank conditions, as well as substrate composition, instream organic matter and variability of instream velocities. Invertebrate communities prior to enhancement were typical of those in urban environments, and dominated by snails (Potamopyrgus, Physa), the amphipod Paracalliope, the hydroptilid caddisfly Oxyethira, oligochaetes and chironomids. Stream enhancement caused only small changes to the invertebrate community, with subtle shifts in overall abundance, species evenness, diversity, and ordination scores. Lack of a consistent strong response by invertebrates to enhancement activities, and continued absence of caddisflies and mayflies from enhanced sites may reflect lack of sufficient change to instream conditions as a result of stream enhancement, colonization bottlenecks for aerial stages of these animals, and the inability of individuals outside the urban watershed to perceive these enhanced ‘islands’ of good habitat. Alternatively, contamination of streambed sediments, excess sedimentation and reduced base flows may be limiting factors precluding successful invertebrate colonization in enhanced sites. These results highlight the importance of setting clear goals and objectives necessary to meet these goals. Enhancement of riparian zones in urban streams may not be adequate to improve benthic invertebrate communities. Identifying over‐arching factors that potentially limit invertebrate communities will enable the enhancement potential of streams to be better assessed, and allow managers to identify sites where recovery of biological communities is possible, and where such recovery is not. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Assessing the effects of hydrological and chemical stressors on macroinvertebrate community in an Alpine river: The Adige River as a case study

In this study, the combined effects of hydrological and chemical stressors on benthic macroinvertebrates were evaluated in order to explore the response of the biological community to multiple stressors. The Adige River, located in the south‐eastern Alps, was selected as a case study because representative of the situation of a large river in which the variety of stressors present in the Alpine region act simultaneously. As expected, streamflow showed a seasonal pattern, with high flows in the spring–summer period; however, locally, the natural hydrological regime was altered by the presence of hydropower systems, which chiefly affected low flows. Multivariate analysis showed seasonal and spatial patterns in both chemical and hydrological parameters with a clear gradient in the concentration of nitrate, personal care, and pharmaceutical products moving from headwaters to the main stem of the river. The macroinvertebrate community composition was significantly different in summer and winter and between up and downstream sites. Streamflow alteration chiefly due to water use by hydropower affected community composition but not richness or diversity. Gammarus sp., Hirudinea, and Psychomyia sp., were positively correlated with flow variability, increasing their densities in the sites with higher streamflow variability because of hydropeaking. The results obtained in this study show that the composition of the macroinvertebrate community responded to seasonality and to changes in the main stressors along the river and highlights the importance of the spatial and temporal variability of stressors in this Alpine river. Taking into account, this variability will help the decision‐making process for improving basin management.