Negative effects of stagnation and drought on benthic invertebrate communities in lowland streams
Liliana García A B and Isabel Pardo A
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A Department of Ecology and Animal Biology, Faculty of Sciences, University of Vigo, Campus As Lagoas – Marcosende, E-36310 Vigo, Spain.
B Corresponding author. Present address: Montana State University, 310 Lewis Hall, Bozeman, MT 59717, USA. Email: lilizar@uvigo.es
Marine and Freshwater Research 68(2) 308-318 https://doi.org/10.1071/MF15257
Submitted: 7 July 2015 Accepted: 3 February 2016 Published: 1 April 2016
Abstract
Streams are extremely vulnerable to water abstraction across the world because of increasing water demand from humans, as well as because precipitation is decreasing in many areas. To determine how water abstraction affects water chemistry, hydromorphological variables and invertebrate assemblages, we conducted an experiment in which we mimicked two levels of disturbance: stagnation and drought. The experiment was performed at two lowland streams in Galicia (north-west Spain), which were similar in physical conditions but differed in trophic status (high v. low P). Samples were taken both before and after manipulation at the upstream control and downstream-disturbed stretches. There was a significant overall effect of water abstraction on both disturbed stretches, but invertebrate assemblages responded differently between streams and within stretches. In the low-P stream, invertebrate densities remained unchanged in the drought stretch but declined in the stagnation stretch relative to the control. At the same time, the high-P stream exhibited a strong loss of diversity in both the stagnation and drought stretches. These results suggest that short-term flow reductions driven by increasing water scarcity and abstraction put benthic communities in lowland streams at risk, and that risk would be greater (in terms of biodiversity loss) in streams that are initially impaired by high-P loading.
Additional keywords: BACI, before–after–control–impact-paired design, principal response curve, trophic condition, water abstraction.
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