Publication details
Climate change increases functional richness and shifts trait composition of benthic macroinvertebrate assemblages along the river continuum
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2026 |
| Type | Article in Periodical |
| Magazine / Source | Limnologica |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| web | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.limno.2025.126307 |
| Doi | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.limno.2025.126307 |
| Keywords | Biological traits; Climate change; Functional richness; Macroinvertebrates; River continuum |
| Description | The recently observed massive reorganisations of macroinvertebrate assemblages in streams are usually attributed to the combined effects of changes in water quality and climate. The consequences of the associated functional changes for ecosystem services and future development are still unknown. In this study, we try to disentangle the effects of climate change on the functional structure from other anthropogenic effects. To do so, we examine functional richness and composition of biological traits in macroinvertebrate assemblages, coming from 65 near-natural streams in the Czech Republic, where anthropogenic stressors apart from those due to climate change were minimal. We sampled the macroinvertebrates using a standardized biomonitoring sampling protocol during three periods from 1997 to 2015. To understand the patterns along the river continuum, we covered a substantial gradient of source distance (3-260 km). The assemblages previously showed a high increase in total species richness and abundances of many native species. As functional richness directly depends on species richness by virtue of probability, we introduced a novel concept of rarefied functional richness, where assemblages of the species richer period were rarefied to equal the number of species in the less species rich period at each site. We found a significant functional enrichment, predominantly independent of the higher number of species and tending towards a unimodal pattern along the source distance. The functional composition overall shifted to that of downstream sections in all source distance intervals, based mainly on life cycle, body size, locomotion, representation of several feeding groups, and dispersal abilities. The shift was mostly indicative of the substantial effects of lower flow conditions associated with fine sediment deposition, increased temperature and an increase in resources, mainly for collectors/gatherers and predators. |
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