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Taxonomic and functional responses of macroinvertebrate communities to dam construction in a non-wadeable river

Authors :
Bo Tiziano
Doretto Alberto
Marino Anna
Laini Alex
Candiotto Alessandro
Source :
Knowledge and Management of Aquatic Ecosystems, Vol 0, Iss 424, p 18 (2023)
Publication Year :
2023
Publisher :
EDP Sciences, 2023.

Abstract

Damming and impoundment are among the main flow-related alterations in rivers worldwide. However, compared to the highland river sections where the impacts associated with dams have been largely studied, still scarce evidence is available in scientific literature for large, lowland rivers. In this study, the ecological effects of a hydropower dam in the Po River (Italy) on the taxonomic and functional responses of benthic macroinvertebrates were examined by comparing one station upstream of the dam with one downstream station over a six-year period. Weak and not significant differences were observed for taxon richness, abundance and community composition. By contrast, community-level proportion of macroinvertebrates associated with water velocity increased during medium and high flow condition and decreased during low flow condition in downstream stations. Such differences were also mirrored by the Flow-T index, that is a biomonitoring index recently developed to assess hydraulic conditions in rivers. Results of this study support the adoption of stressor-specific metrics in river biomonitoring.

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
19619502
Issue :
424
Database :
Directory of Open Access Journals
Journal :
Knowledge and Management of Aquatic Ecosystems
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
edsdoj.8c51ff86cbda44868e41f5d580f532e0
Document Type :
article
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1051/kmae/2023015