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
. 2023 Dec;30(59):122996-123007.
doi: 10.1007/s11356-023-30822-z. Epub 2023 Nov 18.

The influence of spatial processes on fish community structure: using a metacommunity framework for freshwater bioassessment

Milica Stojković Piperac  1 , Vladica Simić  2 , Dušanka Cvijanović  3 , Andrew S Medeiros  4 , Djuradj Milošević  5   3
Affiliations

The influence of spatial processes on fish community structure: using a metacommunity framework for freshwater bioassessment

Milica Stojković Piperac et al. Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2023 Dec.

Abstract

The use of biological indicators in a bioassessment approach is important for inferences of anthropogenic stress in routine monitoring programs. One of the primary assumptions of bioassessment is that biological indicators observed at specific sampling sites will allow for inferences of local environmental quality; however, this assumption requires a reliable understanding of dispersal processes, which is particularly relevant in river systems due to their dendritic network. Inter-stream dispersal between different points of the river network could bias bioassessment, especially for highly mobile organisms like fish. Here, we examine standard biological metrics used in routine biomonitoring to determine how spatial variables, including dispersal, influence inferences between fish populations and environmental gradients. Using redundancy analysis (RDA) and variation partitioning, we tested the relative influence of both environmental and spatial variables on fish community structure and related community metrics. Fish were collected from 99 sampling sites distributed across 44 rivers and streams of the Great Morava River Basin, Serbia. Electroconductivity, the percentage of agricultural areas, dissolved oxygen, ammonia, and nitrate-nitrogen were found to be significant environmental variables, while ten spatial predictors from broad- to small-scales were found to influence fish community structure and community metrics. Our results suggest that contemporary dispersal among streams influences fish community composition, but that trait-based metrics are less sensitive than basic measures of diversity to spatial processes. Our results highlight the need for spatially independent sampling, as well as the need to consider dispersal-based processes in routine biomonitoring.

Keywords: Dispersal processes; Disturbance; Ecological monitoring; Metacommunity dynamics; Trait-based metrics; Variation partitioning.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Angermeier PL, Davideanu G (2004) Using fish communities to assess streams in Romania: initial development of an index of biotic integrity. Hydrobiologia 511:65–78. https://doi.org/10.1023/B:HYDR.0000014030.18386.65 - DOI
    1. Angermeier PL, Winston MR (1999) Characterizing fish community diversity across Virginia landscapes: prerequisite for conservation. Ecol Appl 9:335–349. https://doi.org/10.1890/1051-0761(1999)009[0335:CFCDAV]2.0.CO;2 - DOI
    1. Aparicio E, Carmona-Catot G, Moyle PB, García-Berthou E (2011) Development and evaluation of a fish-based index to assess biological integrity of Mediterranean streams. Aquat Conserv: Mar Freshw Ecosyst 21:324–337. https://doi.org/10.1002/aqc.1197 - DOI
    1. Bahn V, Krohn WB, O’Connor RJ (2008) Dispersal leads to spatial autocorrelation in species distributions: a simulation model. Ecol Modell 213:285–292. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2007.12.005 - DOI
    1. Baldan D, Cunillera-Montcusí D, Funk A, Hein T (2022) Introducing ‘riverconn’: an R package to assess river connectivity indices. Environ Modell Softw 156:105470. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2022.105470 - DOI

Substances

LinkOut - more resources