Publication details
Usability of aquatic macroinvertebrates from bottom sediments for the bioindication of drought duration in streams
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| Year of publication | 2016 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
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| Description | Hydrological regime of many smaller streams has been significantly altered which can result in a complete dry-out of their riverbed. This phenomenon, typical of Mediterranean streams, has become more frequent even in Central Europe – mainly due to progressing climate change and increasing inequality in precipitation. Both spatial and temporal extent of drying are the key factors that determine the survival of benthic invertebrates at a locality. While some of the local taxa are completely lost during the dry period, there are other taxa in the community which can resist the disturbance within the wet stream bed. Individual taxa have various life strategies and qualities (species traits) which could either help them to resist the drought, or which on the contrary impede their survival ability. These differences between taxa, or their dying rate, are the precondition for the possible indication of stream desiccation period using benthic invertebrates as bioindicators. Key factors affecting the survival of benthic invertebrates in a dry riverbed (i.e. specific species traits and abiotic factors such as sediment moisture or temperature) were investigated based on the analysis of samples collected within the BIODROUGHT project (www.biodrought.eu, TA02020395) and experimental data. The focus was on the presence or absence of single taxa and the changes in dried-up stream bed community structure. The obtained data serve as a background for the development of a method for the estimation of the duration of stream dry period. |