Dataset Information

Functional changes in littoral macroinvertebrate communities in response to watershed-level anthropogenic stress.

ABSTRACT: Watershed-scale anthropogenic stressors have profound effects on aquatic communities. Although several functional traits of stream macroinvertebrates change predictably in response to land development and urbanization, little is known about macroinvertebrate functional responses in lakes. We assessed functional community structure, functional diversity (Rao's quadratic entropy) and voltinism in macroinvertebrate communities sampled across the full gradient of anthropogenic stress in Laurentian Great Lakes coastal wetlands. Functional diversity and voltinism significantly decreased with increasing development, whereas agriculture had smaller or non-significant effects. Functional community structure was affected by watershed-scale development, as demonstrated by an ordination analysis followed by regression. Because functional community structure affects energy flow and ecosystem function, and functional diversity is known to have important implications for ecosystem resilience to further environmental change, these results highlight the necessity of finding ways to remediate or at least ameliorate these effects.

SUBMITTER: Kovalenko KE

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4090147 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Functional changes in littoral macroinvertebrate communities in response to watershed-level anthropogenic stress.

Kovalenko Katya E KE Brady Valerie J VJ Ciborowski Jan J H JJ Ilyushkin Sergey S Johnson Lucinda B LB

PloS one 20140709 7

Watershed-scale anthropogenic stressors have profound effects on aquatic communities. Although several functional traits of stream macroinvertebrates change predictably in response to land development and urbanization, little is known about macroinvertebrate functional responses in lakes. We assessed functional community structure, functional diversity (Rao's quadratic entropy) and voltinism in macroinvertebrate communities sampled across the full gradient of anthropogenic stress in Laurentian G ...[more]

PMID: 25006811

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Project description:Dam removal is an increasingly popular restoration tool, but our understanding of ecological responses to dam removal over time is still in the early stages. We quantified seasonal benthic macroinvertebrate density, taxonomic composition, and functional traits for three years after lowhead dam removal in three reaches of the Olentangy River (Ohio, USA): two upstream of former dam (one restored, one unrestored), and one downstream of former dam. Macroinvertebrate community density, generic richness, and Shannon-Wiener diversity decreased between ∼9 and ∼15 months after dam removal; all three variables consistently increased thereafter. These threshold responses were dependent on reach location: density and richness increased ∼15 months after removal in upstream reaches versus ∼19 months downstream of the former dam. Initial macroinvertebrate density declines were likely related to seasonality or life-history characteristics, but density increased up to 2.27× from year to year in three out of four seasons (late autumn, early spring, summer) across all reaches. Macroinvertebrate community composition was similar among the three reaches, but differed seasonally based on non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) and analysis of similarity (ANOSIM). Seasonal differences among communities tended to decrease after dam removal. We detected community-wide shifts in functional traits such as multivoltinism, depositional habitat use, burrowing, and collector-gatherer feeding mode. We observed that these traits were expressed most strongly with Chironomidae, which was the most abundant family. Our results suggest that seasonal environmental conditions can play a role in the response and recovery of macroinvertebrate communities-often used to monitor ecosystem condition-following dam removal. In particular, macroinvertebrate density and diversity can show recovery after dam removal, especially in seasons when macroinvertebrate density is typically lowest, with concomitant changes to functional trait abundance. Thus, we recommend scientists and managers consider responses to dam removal throughout the year. Further, similar density, generic richness, and functional traits among reaches suggest that channel restoration after dam removal may initially have equivocal effects on invertebrate communities.

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Dataset Information

Functional changes in littoral macroinvertebrate communities in response to watershed-level anthropogenic stress.

Publications

Functional changes in littoral macroinvertebrate communities in response to watershed-level anthropogenic stress.

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