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Global climate change in large European rivers: long-term effects on macroinvertebrate communities and potential local confounding factors
- Source :
- Global Change Biology, Global Change Biology, Wiley, 2013, 19 (4), pp.1085-1099. ⟨10.1111/gcb.12124⟩
- Publication Year :
- 2012
-
Abstract
- International audience; Aquatic species living in running waters are widely acknowledged to be vulnerable to climate-induced, thermal and hydrological fluctuations. Climate changes can interact with other environmental changes to determine structural and functional attributes of communities. Although such complex interactions are most likely to occur in a multiple-stressor context as frequently encountered in large rivers, they have received little attention in such ecosystems. In this study, we aimed at specifically addressing the issue of relative long-term effects of global and local changes on benthic macroinvertebrate communities in multistressed large rivers. We assessed effects of hydroclimatic vs. water quality factors on invertebrate community structure and composition over 30years (19792008) in the Middle Loire River, France. As observed in other large European rivers, water warming over the three decades (+0.9 degrees C between 19791988 and 19992008) and to a lesser extent discharge reduction (80m3s1) were significantly involved in the disappearance or decrease in taxa typical from fast running, cold waters (e.g. Chloroperlidae and Potamanthidae). They explained also a major part of the appearance and increase of taxa typical from slow flowing or standing waters and warmer temperatures, including invasive species (e.g. Corbicula sp. and Atyaephyra desmarestii). However, this shift towards a generalist and pollution tolerant assemblage was partially confounded by local improvement in water quality (i.e. phosphate input reduction by about two thirds and eutrophication limitation by almost one half), explaining a significant part of the settlement of new pollution-sensitive taxa (e.g. the caddisfly Brachycentridae and Philopotamidae families) during the last years of the study period. The regain in such taxa allowed maintaining a certain level of specialization in the invertebrate community despite climate change effects.
- Subjects :
- 0106 biological sciences
warming
long-term trends
Climate change
010603 evolutionary biology
01 natural sciences
water quality
Global Warming
invasive species
Rivers
Environmental Chemistry
Animals
Ecosystem
14. Life underwater
[SDU.ENVI]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Continental interfaces, environment
global change
General Environmental Science
Global and Planetary Change
Ecology
Community
biology
Chloroperlidae
010604 marine biology & hydrobiology
Global warming
Community structure
benthos
Confounding Factors, Epidemiologic
15. Life on land
biology.organism_classification
Invertebrates
multiple stressors
Europe
Geography
13. Climate action
Benthic zone
[SDU]Sciences of the Universe [physics]
[SDE]Environmental Sciences
Water quality
community structure
large rivers
[SDE.BE]Environmental Sciences/Biodiversity and Ecology
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 13541013 and 13652486
- Volume :
- 19
- Issue :
- 4
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Global change biology
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....25c161f61ab1759af190963454f06378