Ecological but not biological traits of European riverine invertebrates respond consistently to anthropogenic impacts

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Sinclair, JS, Stubbington, R ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8475-5109, Schäfer, RB, Barešová, L, Bonada, N, Csabai, Z, Jones, JI, Larrañaga, A, Murphy, JF, Pařil, P, Polášek, M, Rasmussen, JJ, Straka, M, Várbíró, G, Verdonschot, RCM, Welti, EAR and Haase, P, 2024. Ecological but not biological traits of European riverine invertebrates respond consistently to anthropogenic impacts. Global Ecology and Biogeography: e13931. ISSN 1466-822X

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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.13931

Abstract

Aim: To determine which riverine invertebrate traits respond consistently to anthropogenic impacts across multiple biogeographic regions.

Location: Europe.

Time Period: 1981–2021.

Major Taxa Studied: Riverine invertebrates.

Methods: We compiled a database of riverine invertebrate community time series for 673 sites across six European countries spanning six freshwater ecoregions. We compared trait responses to anthropogenic impacts (quantified as changes in ‘ecological quality’) among regions for seven ‘ecological’ traits, which reflect habitat preferences, and nine ‘biological’ traits (e.g., morphology or life history), which represent taxon-specific attributes that can influence ecosystem processes.

Results: Four ecological traits (current, microhabitat, salinity and trophic preferences) and one biological trait (dispersal mode) responded consistently across regions. These responses were primarily driven by spatial differences among poorer to better quality sites. Responses to temporal changes in quality were comparable but less pronounced.

Main Conclusions: Consistent responses to anthropogenic impacts across multiple ecological traits indicate these traits may improve broader scale measurements, comparisons and predictions of community responses. However, we could not use ecological traits to identify the actions of specific stressors because multiple traits always responded as a group. Inconsistent responses across almost all biological traits indicated that these traits may be less predictive of impacts across regions. Predictions of how biological traits, and associated ecosystem processes, respond to anthropogenic impacts may be most effective at regional scales where responses are more consistent.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	Global Ecology and Biogeography
Creators:	Sinclair, J.S., Stubbington, R., Schäfer, R.B., Barešová, L., Bonada, N., Csabai, Z., Jones, J.I., Larrañaga, A., Murphy, J.F., Pařil, P., Polášek, M., Rasmussen, J.J., Straka, M., Várbíró, G., Verdonschot, R.C.M., Welti, E.A.R. and Haase, P.
Publisher:	Wiley
Date:	26 October 2024
ISSN:	1466-822X
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1111/geb.13931 DOI 2272842 Other
Rights:	© 2024 The Author(s). This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Divisions:	Schools > School of Science and Technology
Record created by:	Melissa Cornwell
Date Added:	01 Nov 2024 10:27
Last Modified:	01 Nov 2024 10:27
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/52496