How effective are ecological metrics in supporting conservation and management in degraded streams?
Authors: Mathers, K.L., Robinson, C.T., Hill, M., Kowarik, C., Heino, J., Deacon, C. and Weber, C.
Journal: Biodiversity and Conservation
Volume: 33
Issue: 14
Pages: 3981-4002
eISSN: 1572-9710
ISSN: 0960-3115
DOI: 10.1007/s10531-024-02933-7
Abstract:Biodiversity loss is increasing worldwide, necessitating effective approaches to counteract negative trends. Here, we assessed aquatic macroinvertebrate biodiversity in two river catchments in Switzerland; one significantly degraded and associated with urbanisation and instream barriers, and one in a near-natural condition. Contrary to our expectations, environmental heterogeneity was lower in the near-natural stream, with enhanced productivity in the degraded system resulting in a greater range of environmental conditions. At face value, commonly employed alpha, beta and gamma biodiversity metrics suggested both catchments constituted healthy systems, with greater richness or comparable values recorded in the degraded system relative to the near-natural one. Further, functional metrics considered to be early indicators for anthropogenic disturbance, demonstrated no anticipated differences between degraded and near-natural catchments. However, investigating the identity of the taxa unique to each river system showed that anthropogenic degradation led to replacement of specialist, sensitive species indicative of pristine rivers, by generalist, pollution tolerant species. These replacements reflect a major alteration in community composition in the degraded system compared with the near-natural system. Total nitrogen and fine sediment were important in distinguishing the respective communities. We urge caution in biodiversity studies that employ numerical biodiversity metrics alone. Assessing just one aspect of diversity, such as richness, is not sufficient to track biodiversity changes associated with environmental stress. We advocate that biodiversity monitoring for conservation and management purposes must go beyond traditional richness biodiversity metrics, to include indices that incorporate detailed nuances of biotic communities that relates to taxon identity.
https://eprints.bournemouth.ac.uk/40495/
Source: Scopus
How effective are ecological metrics in supporting conservation and management in degraded streams?
Authors: Mathers, K.L., Robinson, C.T., Hill, M., Kowarik, C., Heino, J., Deacon, C. and Weber, C.
Journal: Biodivers Conserv
Volume: 33
Issue: 14
Pages: 3981-4002
ISSN: 0960-3115
DOI: 10.1007/s10531-024-02933-7
Abstract:UNLABELLED: Biodiversity loss is increasing worldwide, necessitating effective approaches to counteract negative trends. Here, we assessed aquatic macroinvertebrate biodiversity in two river catchments in Switzerland; one significantly degraded and associated with urbanisation and instream barriers, and one in a near-natural condition. Contrary to our expectations, environmental heterogeneity was lower in the near-natural stream, with enhanced productivity in the degraded system resulting in a greater range of environmental conditions. At face value, commonly employed alpha, beta and gamma biodiversity metrics suggested both catchments constituted healthy systems, with greater richness or comparable values recorded in the degraded system relative to the near-natural one. Further, functional metrics considered to be early indicators for anthropogenic disturbance, demonstrated no anticipated differences between degraded and near-natural catchments. However, investigating the identity of the taxa unique to each river system showed that anthropogenic degradation led to replacement of specialist, sensitive species indicative of pristine rivers, by generalist, pollution tolerant species. These replacements reflect a major alteration in community composition in the degraded system compared with the near-natural system. Total nitrogen and fine sediment were important in distinguishing the respective communities. We urge caution in biodiversity studies that employ numerical biodiversity metrics alone. Assessing just one aspect of diversity, such as richness, is not sufficient to track biodiversity changes associated with environmental stress. We advocate that biodiversity monitoring for conservation and management purposes must go beyond traditional richness biodiversity metrics, to include indices that incorporate detailed nuances of biotic communities that relates to taxon identity. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10531-024-02933-7.
https://eprints.bournemouth.ac.uk/40495/
Source: PubMed
How effective are ecological metrics in supporting conservation and management in degraded streams?
Authors: Mathers, K.L., Robinson, C.T., Hill, M., Kowarik, C., Heino, J., Deacon, C. and Weber, C.
Journal: BIODIVERSITY AND CONSERVATION
Volume: 33
Issue: 14
Pages: 3981-4002
eISSN: 1572-9710
ISSN: 0960-3115
DOI: 10.1007/s10531-024-02933-7
https://eprints.bournemouth.ac.uk/40495/
Source: Web of Science (Lite)
How effective are ecological metrics in supporting conservation and management in degraded streams?
Authors: Mathers, K.L., Robinson, C.T., Hill, M., Kowarik, C., Heino, J., Deacon, C. and Weber, C.
Journal: Biodivers Conserv.
Volume: 33
Issue: 14
Pages: 3981-4002
eISSN: 1572-9710
ISSN: 0960-3115
DOI: 10.1007/s10531-024-02933-7
Abstract:Biodiversity loss is increasing worldwide, necessitating effective approaches to counteract negative trends. Here, we assessed aquatic macroinvertebrate biodiversity in two river catchments in Switzerland; one significantly degraded and associated with urbanisation and instream barriers, and one in a near-natural condition. Contrary to our expectations, environmental heterogeneity was lower in the near-natural stream, with enhanced productivity in the degraded system resulting in a greater range of environmental conditions. At face value, commonly employed alpha, beta and gamma biodiversity metrics suggested both catchments constituted healthy systems, with greater richness or comparable values recorded in the degraded system relative to the near-natural one. Further, functional metrics considered to be early indicators for anthropogenic disturbance, demonstrated no anticipated differences between degraded and near-natural catchments. However, investigating the identity of the taxa unique to each river system showed that anthropogenic degradation led to replacement of specialist, sensitive species indicative of pristine rivers, by generalist, pollution tolerant species. These replacements reflect a major alteration in community composition in the degraded system compared with the near-natural system. Total nitrogen and fine sediment were important in distinguishing the respective communities. We urge caution in biodiversity studies that employ numerical biodiversity metrics alone. Assessing just one aspect of diversity, such as richness, is not sufficient to track biodiversity changes associated with environmental stress. We advocate that biodiversity monitoring for conservation and management purposes must go beyond traditional richness biodiversity metrics, to include indices that incorporate detailed nuances of biotic communities that relates to taxon identity.
Supplementary information
The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10531-024-02933-7.https://eprints.bournemouth.ac.uk/40495/
Source: Europe PubMed Central
How effective are ecological metrics in supporting conservation and management in degraded streams?
Authors: Mathers, K.L., Robinson, C.T., Hill, M., Kowarik, C., Heino, J., Deacon, C. and Weber, C.
Journal: Biodiversity and Conservation
Volume: 33
Pages: 3981-4002
ISSN: 0960-3115
Abstract:Biodiversity loss is increasing worldwide, necessitating effective approaches to counteract negative trends. Here, we assessed aquatic macroinvertebrate biodiversity in two river catchments in Switzerland; one significantly degraded and associated with urbanisation and instream barriers, and one in a near-natural condition. Contrary to our expectations, environmental heterogeneity was lower in the near-natural stream, with enhanced productivity in the degraded system resulting in a greater range of environmental conditions. At face value, commonly employed alpha, beta and gamma biodiversity metrics suggested both catchments constituted healthy systems, with greater richness or comparable values recorded in the degraded system relative to the near-natural one. Further, functional metrics considered to be early indicators for anthropogenic disturbance, demonstrated no anticipated differences between degraded and near-natural catchments. However, investigating the identity of the taxa unique to each river system showed that anthropogenic degradation led to replacement of specialist, sensitive species indicative of pristine rivers, by generalist, pollution tolerant species. These replacements reflect a major alteration in community composition in the degraded system compared with the near-natural system. Total nitrogen and fine sediment were important in distinguishing the respective communities. We urge caution in biodiversity studies that employ numerical biodiversity metrics alone. Assessing just one aspect of diversity, such as richness, is not sufficient to track biodiversity changes associated with environmental stress. We advocate that biodiversity monitoring for conservation and management purposes must go beyond traditional richness biodiversity metrics, to include indices that incorporate detailed nuances of biotic communities that relates to taxon identity.
https://eprints.bournemouth.ac.uk/40495/
Source: BURO EPrints