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Global climate change in large E uropean rivers: long‐term effects on macroinvertebrate communities and potential local confounding factors
Author(s) -
Floury Mathieu,
UsseglioPolatera Philippe,
Ferreol Martial,
Delattre Cecile,
Souchon Yves
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
global change biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 4.146
H-Index - 255
eISSN - 1365-2486
pISSN - 1354-1013
DOI - 10.1111/gcb.12124
Subject(s) - eutrophication , context (archaeology) , ecology , climate change , benthic zone , environmental science , generalist and specialist species , invertebrate , global warming , ecosystem , water quality , mesocosm , geography , habitat , biology , nutrient , archaeology
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 30 years (1979–2008) in the M iddle L oire R iver, F rance. As observed in other large E uropean rivers, water warming over the three decades (+0.9 °C between 1979–1988 and 1999–2008) and to a lesser extent discharge reduction (−80 m 3 s −1 ) were significantly involved in the disappearance or decrease in taxa typical from fast running, cold waters (e.g. C hloroperlidae and P otamanthidae). 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. C orbicula sp . and A tyaephyra 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 B rachycentridae and P hilopotamidae 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.