The objective of the manuscript was to study the effects of dead wood on macroinvertebrates (MI) assemblages occupying different habitat patches. Three streams were studied, with control and wooded sections in each stream from which MI were sampled f...
Comprehensive research on the structural and functional variability of benthic macroinvertebrate communities within headwater streams is limited, despite the fact that the majority of streams within a watershed are headwater streams that form the pri...
The effects of channelization with low in-stream barriers in mountain rivers on macroinvertebrate communities are still weakly recognised. We aimed to assess the differences in structure and density of benthic macroinvertebrates between two north Car...
Macroinvertebrates are sensitive to environmental disturbances, however, the effects of human activities on macroinvertebrate community structures and functional traits in glacier-fed streams are concerning. To elucidate the effects of horse, cattle...
Collections made over 20 years with a multiple habitat sampling protocol and Hester–Dendy artificial substrate samplers were used to assess macroinvertebrate genera richness in first- to fourth-order streams on the Savannah River Site (SRS), a...
The Guayas River basin is one of the most important water resources in Ecuador, but the expansion of human activities has led to a degraded water quality. The purpose of this study was (1) to explore the importance of physical-chemical variables in s...
Glacier-fed streams are one of the environments most sensitive to global climate change. However, the effects of the freezing–thawing process on benthic macroinvertebrate communities in different habitats of glacier-fed streams are unclear. In...
While macroinvertebrates are extensively investigated in many river ecosystems, meta-community ecology perspectives in alpine streams are very limited. We assessed the role of ecological factors and temporal dynamics in the macroinvertebrate meta-com...
15 October 2012
At a time when anthropogenic activities are increasingly disturbing the overall ecological integrity of freshwater ecosystems, monitoring of biological communities is central to assessing the health and function of streams. This study aimed to use a...
As bioindicators, benthic macroinvertebrates are often used to assess stream quality. Based on standard hydrobiological study techniques, the physicochemical and biological health status of the Missolé stream was assessed. Waters of the Missol...
23 March 2020
The extent of anthropogenic land use in watersheds determines the amount of pollutants discharged to streams. This indirectly and directly affects stream water quality and biological health. Most studies have therefore focused on ways to reduce non-p...
Fresh, green leaves are increasing as resources in aquatic ecosystems due to more frequent severe spring and summer storms, but research on allochthonous resources typically uses senescent leaves. We examined macroinvertebrate colonization of green l...
This study explores the impact of anthropogenic land use changes on the macroinvertebrate community structure in the streams of the Cangshan Mountains. Through field collections of macroinvertebrates, measurement of water environments, and delineatio...
In some states, the Stream Quantification Tool (SQT) has been adopted to quantify functional change of stream mitigation efforts. However, the ability of the SQT protocol to predict biological function and uphold the premise of the Stream Functions P...
The threats to small urban streams lead to a decrease in their water quality and dysregulate their ecological balance, thereby affecting the biodiversity and causing degradation of indicators that determine the ecological potential. The aim of our st...
Five rapid visual stream assessment methods were applied to 65 restored streams in North Carolina, and the results were correlated with measured macroinvertebrate community metrics to evaluate predictive ability. The USEPA Rapid Bioassessment Protoco...
Different biological groups show biased responses to similar or different environmental stressors on different scales. The selection of bioindicators based on pressure characteristics is the basis for accurately assessing ecological quality. In this...
As impervious cover increases with urban development, stream channels are degraded by increased stormwater runoff, which negatively impacts stream habitat quality and benthic macroinvertebrate diversity. We examined the relationship between stream ha...
Understanding drivers of biodiversity is a long-standing goal of basic and applied ecological research. In riverine systems, there remains a critical need to identify these drivers as efforts to manage and protect rivers grow increasingly desperate i...
This study assesses the ecological status of alpine lotic ecosystems in Khunjerab National Park, Pakistan, situated at approximately 4000 m in the Karakoram Range along the Pakistan–China border. An integrative approach was employed, evaluating...
Prior to implementing watershed-wide projects to reduce the impacts of agriculture on regional streams and rivers, stream habitats and benthic aquatic macroinvertebrate communities were assessed at 15 sites on the South Branch Root River and its majo...
Regional data needed for effective stream restoration include hydraulic geometry relationships (i.e., regional curves) and reference channel morphology parameters. Increasingly ecological conditions are being considered when designing, implementing,...
Headwater streams generally comprise the majority of stream area in a watershed and can have a strong influence on downstream food webs. Our objective was to determine the effect of altering streamside management zone (SMZ) configurations on headwate...
Between 1995 and 2022, 19 measuring points in small and medium sized streams in the Harz National Park, Germany, were sampled. The samples were evaluated in terms of their macroinvertebrate (MI) biology and hydrochemistry. Nearly all streams showed a...
Restored stream reaches at 79 sites across North Carolina were sampled for aquatic macroinvertebrates using a rapid bioassessment protocol. Morphological design parameters and geographic factors, including watershed and landscape parameters (e.g., va...
23 July 2018
Coal and coal seam gas mining have impacts on the water and sediment quality in the proximity of the mining areas, increasing the concentrations of heavy metals downstream of the mine discharge points. The objective of this study was to assess the im...
Bioassessment assumes that ecological conditions remain stable in the absence of environmental changes. Evidence suggests this assumption may hold for reference streams, but knowledge gaps remain for impacted streams. Our study quantified interannual...
Tropical Andean glaciers are retreating rapidly, with possible consequences for trophic structure and ecosystem processes in high Andean meltwater streams. Here, we measured the environmental characteristics, quantified pools of particulate organic m...
The macroinvertebrate community, physical–chemical water variables and hydromorphological indices were studied in the Turón River (Málaga, Southern Spain). Our study aims to improve the knowledge of the most influential environmen...
The present study aimed to detect any changes in concentrations of nutrients and evaluate the impact on the quality of two hemiboreal streams that collect a discharge from two fertilized Scots pine stands. In 2017, nitrogen-containing mineral fertili...
Indices of fauna communities, including macroinvertebrates, have been widely used as indicators of environmental changes in streams with great success. However, in the evaluations of in-stream restorations, results from the deployment of macroinverte...
9 March 2022
We propose a field procedure for estimating the dry biomass of stream macroinvertebrates. Estimates are calculated using the mean values of the a and b regression coefficients from unpublished data and an extensive review of the relevant literature....
Outdoor education (OE) stream classes provide students with an opportunity to gain hands-on experience with sampling methods for evaluating stream water quality. Trampling by students as a result of stream classes may disrupt the substrate and negati...
We examined riparian system responses to an extreme rainfall event on 1–4 December 2007, in eleven small watersheds (mean area—13.2 km2) from 2008–2016 at debris flow, high flood, and low flood reaches (all extended overbank flows). Macroinvertebrate...
Exploitation of hydropower potential in alpine areas undermines the ecological integrity of rivers. Damming and water abstraction substantially alter the physical habitat template of rivers, with strong repercussions on aquatic communities and their...
Urban areas with dark and impermeable surfaces are known to have a heating effect on air and still water compared to surrounding areas, called the urban heat island effect (UHI). UHI and stormwater discharges’ collective impact on stream temper...
Land use is known to be an important factor in the composition and function of adjacent freshwater lotic ecosystems. However, the relative effects of land use type, extent, intensity, and proximity on aquatic ecosystem quality are not fully understoo...
Headwater streams are reliant on riparian tree leaf litterfall to fuel brown food webs. Terrestrial agents like herbivores and contaminants can alter plant growth, litter production, litter quality, and the timing of litterfall into streams, influenc...
Agricultural land use leads to changes in physical and chemical characteristics of sediment that influence macroinvertebrate community diversity and abundance in streams. To the best of our knowledge the joint influence of sediment’s physical a...
Two decades since calls for stream restoration projects to be scientifically assessed, most projects are still unevaluated, and conducted evaluations yield ambiguous results. Even after these decades of investigation, do we know how to define and mea...
Tropical streams host diverse benthic macroinvertebrates, essential for ecological processes and bioindicators of ecosystem health. However, land use changes, such as sugarcane cultivation, negatively impact stream structure and function. This study...
Conserving and enhancing freshwater biodiversity are global issues to ensure ecosystem integrity and sustainability. To meet this, it is critical to understand how the biological assemblages are determined by environmental gradients in different spat...
Determining the patterns of diversity and community composition in headwater streams is fundamental to river biodiversity conservation. Environmental selection has been assumed to be a major force driving temperate macroinvertebrate assembly. To test...
Identifying and tracking the influence of industrial activities on streams and lakes is a priority for monitoring in Canada’s oil sands region (OSR). While differences in indicators are often found in waterbodies adjacent to mining facilities, the co...
Municipal wastewater effluent (MWWE) is a common source of nutrient enrichment and provides a route for emerging substances of concern (ESOCs) to enter aquatic systems. Community composition and abundance metrics of benthic macroinvertebrates are com...
The Rwenzori region in Uganda, a global biodiversity hotspot, is currently undergoing exponential economic and population growth, which puts continuous stress on its freshwater ecosystems. In Sub-Saharan Africa, biomonitoring campaigns using region-s...
Urban pollution is increasing at an alarming rate within the catchments of forested riverine systems in sub-Saharan Africa, Nigeria inclusive. Assessing the impact of pollution in riverine systems in the Niger Delta region is still within the use of...
Lao PDR, a landlocked country in the lower Mekong River basin of Southeast Asia, has been considered a global biodiversity hotspot with a high level of biological endemism. In recent years, urban development and industrialization have affected the wa...
The Volcán River watershed in the south Pacific of Costa Rica comprises forests, small urban settlements, cattle fields, and intensive agriculture (mostly pineapple and sugarcane). The ecological integrity and quality of its waters was assesse...
Ecohydraulic models have commonly used the flow velocity, water depth, and substrate type (i3 models) as the three fundamental determinants of the distribution of freshwater biota, but a fourth determinant has largely been neglected: stream vegetatio...
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