Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 May 1;70(5):427-438.
doi: 10.1093/biosci/biaa033. Epub 2020 Apr 22.

A Metacommunity Approach to Improve Biological Assessments in Highly Dynamic Freshwater Ecosystems

Núria Cid  1 , Núria Bonada  2 , Jani Heino  3 , Miguel Cañedo-Argüelles  2 , Julie Crabot  1 , Romain Sarremejane  4 , Janne Soininen  5 , Rachel Stubbington  4 , Thibault Datry  1
Affiliations

A Metacommunity Approach to Improve Biological Assessments in Highly Dynamic Freshwater Ecosystems

Núria Cid et al. Bioscience. .

Abstract

Rapid shifts in biotic communities due to environmental variability challenge the detection of anthropogenic impacts by current biomonitoring programs. Metacommunity ecology has the potential to inform such programs, because it combines dispersal processes with niche-based approaches and recognizes variability in community composition. Using intermittent rivers-prevalent and highly dynamic ecosystems that sometimes dry-we develop a conceptual model to illustrate how dispersal limitation and flow intermittence influence the performance of biological indices. We produce a methodological framework integrating physical- and organismal-based dispersal measurements into predictive modeling, to inform development of dynamic ecological quality assessments. Such metacommunity-based approaches could be extended to other ecosystems and are required to underpin our capacity to monitor and protect ecosystems threatened under future environmental changes.

Keywords: bioassessment; climate change; connectivity; dispersal; intermittent rivers and streams.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Intermittent rivers in contrasting climatic regions during flowing and dry phases: (a) Cérvol, in Mediterranean-climate Spain. (b) Manifold, oceanic England, United Kingdom. Photographs: (a) Núria Cid. (b) Nick Mott.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Values for the biomonitoring index IBMWP and associated biological quality (moderate, poor, bad) in two headwater intermittent rivers: (a) Cérvol and (b) Monlleó (Castelló, Spain). Although they may have disconnected pools for a short period during transitions between flowing and dry phases (i.e., Monlleó), both sites completely dry out during the dry season. The number of zero-flow days was assessed using temperature data loggers (Soria et al. 2020). Both sites are within the same official river typology (i.e., limestone rivers of Mediterranean lowland mountains) and, therefore, their quality is assessed using the same reference values. Neither site is exposed to significant anthropogenic pressures. Even when sampled during the flowing phase, as was indicated in standard protocols developed for perennial rivers, biological quality is underestimated for the site with the greatest distance to the nearest perennial site. Quality assessments are not performed when the river is dry. Data obtained from the TRivers Project.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
The performance of traditional biological indices used in river biomonitoring (a) is reduced by increasing flow intermittence (percentage) following different relationships (b) depending on spatial connectivity and species’ dispersal and resistance traits (c). Typically, an effective index classifies 80%–100% of sites correctly. See box 2 for a detailed description. The percentage of flow intermittence refers to the annual amount of time that the river has no flow.
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
Steps for the incorporation of metacommunity-based measurements into bioassessment. Black lines represent the process of model building, dark grey lines (left) the model validation, and light lines (right) the biological assessment of test sites.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Alba-Tercedor J et al. .. 2002. Caracterización del estado ecológico de ríos mediterráneos ibéricos mediante el índice IBMWP (antes BMWP’). Limnética 21: 175–185.
    1. Allen DC, Kopp DA, Costigan KH, Datry T, Hugueny B, Turner DS, Bodner GS, Flood TJ. 2019. Citizen scientists document long-term streamflow declines in intermittent rivers of the desert southwest, USA. Freshwater Science 38: 244–256.
    1. Aroviita J, Mykrä H, Muotka T, Hämäläinen HE. 2009. Influence of geographical extent on typology- and model-based assessments of taxonomic completeness of river macroinvertebrates. Freshwater Biology 54: 1774–1787.
    1. Beirinckx K, Van Gossum HJ, Lajeunesse M R, Forbes M. 2006. Sex biases in dispersal and philopatry: Insights from a meta-analysis based on capture–mark–recapture studies of damselflies. Oikos 113: 539–547.
    1. Birk S, Bonne W, Borja A, Brucet S, Courrat A, Poikane S, Solimini A, van de Bund W, Zampoukas N, Hering D. 2012. Three hundred ways to assess Europe's surface waters: An almost complete overview of biological methods to implement the Water Framework Directive. Ecological Indicators 18: 31–41.