Publication Date:
2023-11-23
Description:
Despite the importance of tropical montane cloud forest streams, studies investigating aquatic communities in these regions are rare and knowledge on the driving factors of community structure is missing. The objectives of this study therefore were to understand how land-use influences habitat structure and macroinvertebrate communities in cloud forest streams of southern Ecuador. We evaluated these relationships in headwater streams with variable land cover, using multivariate statistics to identify relationships between key habitat variables and assemblage structure, and to resolve differences in composition among sites. Results show that shading intensity, substrate type and pH were the environmental parameters most closely related to variation in community composition observed among sites. In addition, macroinvertebrate density and partly diversity was lower in forested sites, possibly because the pH in forested streams lowered to almost 5 during spates. Standard bioindicator metrics were unable to detect the changes in assemblage structure between disturbed and forested streams. In general, our results indicate that tropical montane headwater streams are complex and heterogeneous ecosystems with low invertebrate densities. We also found that some amount of disturbance, i.e. patchy deforestation, can lead at least initially to an increase in macroinvertebrate taxa richness of these streams.
Keywords:
Alkalinity, total; Anacroneuria spp.; Anchytarsus spp.; Andesiops spp.; Argia spp.; Atanatolica spp.; Atopsyche spp.; Baetodes spp.; Cernotina spp.; Chimarra spp.; Chironomidae; Conductivity; Conductivity and pH meter, pH/Cond 340i (WTW, Weilheim); Corydalus spp.; Counting 〉500 µm fraction; DATE/TIME; DEPTH, water; Dineutus spp.; Diptera indeterminata; Ecuador; Elevation 2; Elmidae; Farrodes spp.; Flow meter; Flow velocity, water; Gravel, cover; Grumichella spp.; Haplohyphes spp.; Helicopsyche spp.; Hetaerina spp.; Hexatoma spp.; Human Dimensions; Individuals per area; Lakes & Rivers; Land Surface; Land use; LATITUDE; Leptohyphes spp.; Leptonema spp.; Limnocoris spp.; LONGITUDE; macroinvertebrates; Macrostemum spp.; Marilia spp.; Mortoniella spp.; mountains; Nectopsyche spp.; Organic matter; Oxygen; Oxygen meter Oxi320 with a CellOx325 sensor (WTW, Weilheim); pH; Phylloicus spp.; Planariidae; Polythore spp.; Psephenops spp.; Pyralidae; Rio_SanFrancisco; River; RIVER; Sample code/label; Sampling river; Sand; Shading; Sialis spp.; Simuliidae; Smicridea spp.; Stones, cover; Taxa per area; Temperature, water; Thraulodes spp.; Tipulidae; Titration; Triplectes spp.; Visual observation; Weighted; Width
Type:
Dataset
Format:
text/tab-separated-values, 2715 data points
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