Aquatic Insect Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics in Disturbed Rivers

A special issue of Diversity (ISSN 1424-2818). This special issue belongs to the section "Freshwater Biodiversity".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 August 2026 | Viewed by 796

Editors


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Guest Editor
General Biology Department, Federal University of Vicosa, Viçosa 36570-900, Brazil
Interests: ecology; Orthoptera; forests; habitat fragmentation; insects; environmental impacts
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Guest Editor
Key Laboratory of Zoological Systematics and Evolution, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
Interests: insect diversity; molecular systematics; geometric morphometrics; 3D morphology; functional morphology; biogeography; AI taxonomy; Intelligent insect monitoring; fossil
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor Assistant
Animal Biology Department, Federal University of Viçosa, Viçosa 36570-900, Brazil
Interests: ecology; taxonomy; political-environmental education; entomology; aquatic insects

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues, 

The Diversity Journal is pleased to announce the upcoming launch of a Special Issue entitled “Aquatic Insect Biodiversity and Ecosystem Responses in Disturbed Rivers.”

Aquatic insects are vital yet highly vulnerable components of riverine ecosystems. They act as sensitive bioindicators of environmental change and play a central role in sustaining key ecological functions, including organic matter processing, nutrient cycling, and energy transfer across trophic levels. However, their biodiversity—encompassing taxonomic, genetic, functional, and evolutionary dimensions—is being profoundly reshaped by intensifying anthropogenic pressures such as pollution, hydrological alteration, land-use change, and climate change.

This Special Issue aims to advance a holistic understanding of how these disturbances drive the disassembly, reorganization, and reassembly of aquatic insect communities, and how such changes affect ecosystem functioning, stability, and resilience in freshwater systems. We seek to bridge ecological and evolutionary perspectives to better capture the complexity of biodiversity responses across spatial and temporal scales.

We invite original research articles, reviews, and case studies that explore the mechanisms and trajectories of change in disturbed river systems. Contributions may address ecological and evolutionary responses of aquatic insects, link biodiversity shifts to altered ecosystem processes and services, or present innovative, integrative, and interdisciplinary approaches for diagnosis, monitoring, and prediction in freshwater ecosystems.

By synthesizing insights from genes to ecosystems, this Special Issue aims to provide a robust scientific foundation to support conservation, management, and functional recovery strategies for the world’s increasingly threatened freshwater habitats.

Dr. Carlos Frankl Sperber
Prof. Dr. Ming Bai
Guest Editors

Dr. Ana Daria Leite Viana
Guest Editor Assistant

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Keywords

  • disturbance ecology
  • river restoration
  • freshwater ecology
  • aquatic biogeography
  • bioindicators

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

26 pages, 26251 KB  
Article
Multi-Scale Responses of Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera and Trichoptera Communities to Catastrophic River Disturbance: Evidence from the Rio Doce Mining Tailings Dam Disaster
by Ana Dária Leite Viana, Álvaro Domingues Ataíde, Pedro Rodrigues Junior, Millena Cristhina Dias Correia, Frederico Falcão Salles and Carlos Frankl Sperber
Diversity 2026, 18(7), 418; https://doi.org/10.3390/d18070418 - 11 Jul 2026
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Abstract
The 2015 Mariana mining disaster in Minas Gerais, Brazil, profoundly altered the abiotic conditions of the Rio Doce basin, severely affecting aquatic biodiversity. Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, and Trichoptera (EPT), widely recognized as sensitive bioindicators of freshwater disturbance, were used to assess long-term ecological responses [...] Read more.
The 2015 Mariana mining disaster in Minas Gerais, Brazil, profoundly altered the abiotic conditions of the Rio Doce basin, severely affecting aquatic biodiversity. Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, and Trichoptera (EPT), widely recognized as sensitive bioindicators of freshwater disturbance, were used to assess long-term ecological responses to this event. Forty sites across the basin were sampled, including twenty affected by mining tailings and twenty unaffected reference sites, collecting adult and immature EPT along with physical and chemical and habitat data. It was evaluated how tailings deposition, abiotic factors, spatial scale, life stage, and climatic variation influenced EPT community structure seven years after the disaster. EPT communities showed persistent negative responses in impacted areas, with reduced species richness, shifts in species composition, and increased dominance of generalist taxa. Tailings deposition also altered environmental conditions, intensifying the effects of pre-existing stressors on aquatic assemblages. Responses varied across spatial scales and life stages, highlighting the complexity of disturbance effects on freshwater insect communities. Climatic variation further influenced community dynamics, interacting with local environmental conditions to shape recovery trajectories. Our findings demonstrate that the disaster produced lasting ecological impacts, reinforcing the importance of multi-scale monitoring to understand biodiversity responses and guide conservation and restoration strategies in disturbed river ecosystems. Full article
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