Site characteristics determine the prevalence of extreme weather events affecting freshwater macroinvertebrate communities.

Autor: Haubrock PJ; Department of River Ecology and Conservation, Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum Frankfurt, Gelnhausen, Germany; Faculty of Fisheries and Protection of Waters, South Bohemian Research Center of Aquaculture and Biodiversity of Hydrocenoses, University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice, Vodňany, Czech Republic; CAMB, Center for Applied Mathematics and Bioinformatics, Gulf University for Science and Technology, Kuwait.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: The Science of the total environment [Sci Total Environ] 2024 Nov 10; Vol. 950, pp. 175436. Date of Electronic Publication: 2024 Aug 10.
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.175436
Abstrakt: Understanding the impacts of extreme weather events on freshwater ecosystems is imperative during a time when a multitude of challenges compromises these environments' health. Exploring how such events affect macroinvertebrate communities in rivers sheds light on the resilience of freshwater ecosystems, which is essential for human well-being and biodiversity conservation. In this study, long-term time series of benthic macroinvertebrate communities from four sites along three freshwater streams within the Rhine-Main-Observatory Long-Term Ecological Research site in Germany were analyzed. Each of them was sampled annually over a span of ~20 years to assess the impacts of extreme weather events (floods, droughts, and extreme heat) on macroinvertebrate communities. The findings reveal that the effects of extreme events are site-specific, suggesting that the impacts of an extreme event can vary based on several potential factors, including the life history traits of the organisms within the community and, among others, the hydrography of the site. Moreover, the analysis highlights that the cumulative impact of these events over time is more significant than the impact of a single event's magnitude, while following distinct temporal dynamics. This underscores the importance of considering both the temporal dynamics and the biological characteristics of communities when evaluating the consequences of extreme weather events on biodiversity, illustrating that the resilience of freshwater ecosystems and their biodiversity under such conditions depends on a complex interplay of factors rather than the severity of individual events.
Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The author have no financial/personal interest or belief that could affect their objectivity to declare.
(Copyright © 2024 The Author. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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