Comparative assessment of macroinvertebrate communities within three Afromontane headwater streams influenced by different land use patterns

Headwater streams in Afromontane ecoregions harbour locally adapted aquatic communities. However, across many regions in Africa, these ecosystems and their unique aquatic biodiversity have been severely impacted by unsustainable land use practices. We tested the hypothesis that land use disturbances...

Descripción completa

Guardado en:

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales:	Nonjabulo H. Matomela, Albert Chakona, Wilbert T. Kadye
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Elsevier 2021
Materias:	Community composition Diversity Traits Seasonality Multivariate ordination RLQ Ecology QH540-549.5
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/11fcf5a9ba22426785953a30e428fc2c
Etiquetas:	Agregar Etiqueta Sin Etiquetas, Sea el primero en etiquetar este registro!

id	oai:doaj.org-article:11fcf5a9ba22426785953a30e428fc2c
record_format	dspace
spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:11fcf5a9ba22426785953a30e428fc2c2021-12-01T04:57:13ZComparative assessment of macroinvertebrate communities within three Afromontane headwater streams influenced by different land use patterns1470-160X10.1016/j.ecolind.2021.107972https://doaj.org/article/11fcf5a9ba22426785953a30e428fc2c2021-10-01T00:00:00Zhttp://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1470160X21006373https://doaj.org/toc/1470-160XHeadwater streams in Afromontane ecoregions harbour locally adapted aquatic communities. However, across many regions in Africa, these ecosystems and their unique aquatic biodiversity have been severely impacted by unsustainable land use practices. We tested the hypothesis that land use disturbances were the primary drivers of community dynamics by comparing spatial and temporal dynamics together with trait-environment relationships of macroinvertebrate communities in three headwater streams influenced by different land use practices. The three headwater streams were distinguished based on high conductivity, total dissolved solids and alkaline pH in the agriculture-disturbed stream, and low temperature in a stream whose riparian zone was invaded by non-native vegetation compared to a near-natural stream. Macroinvertebrate taxonomic diversity was, nevertheless, comparable among these three streams. Constrained canonical ordination revealed that seasonality was a major driver of macroinvertebrate dynamics that was reflected mostly by the abundances of six macroinvertebrate taxa (Baetis, Dicentroptelum, Afronurus, Tricorythus, Simulium and Cheumatopsyche), whereas land use contributed a small but significant difference. Trait-environment relationships reflected seasonal changes that included the importance of benthic substratum in winter, the occurrence of collector-gatherer invertebrates in spring and aerial breathing traits in summer. Land use-related traits were, nevertheless, reflected by gill respiration and grazer feeding traits represented by Afronurus in the near-natural stream, predator traits represented by Aeshna and Lestes in the invaded stream, and aerial respiration represented by Enithares, Orectogyrus and Rhagovelia in the agriculture-disturbed stream. Our results suggest that environmental variability associated with seasonality probably played a deterministic role within which land use disturbances operated. Overall, our study suggest that importance of using multiple metrics to unpack the patterns associated with land use disturbances in headwater streams.Nonjabulo H. MatomelaAlbert ChakonaWilbert T. KadyeElsevierarticleCommunity compositionDiversityTraitsSeasonalityMultivariate ordinationRLQEcologyQH540-549.5ENEcological Indicators, Vol 129, Iss , Pp 107972- (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Community composition Diversity Traits Seasonality Multivariate ordination RLQ Ecology QH540-549.5
spellingShingle	Community composition Diversity Traits Seasonality Multivariate ordination RLQ Ecology QH540-549.5 Nonjabulo H. Matomela Albert Chakona Wilbert T. Kadye Comparative assessment of macroinvertebrate communities within three Afromontane headwater streams influenced by different land use patterns
description	Headwater streams in Afromontane ecoregions harbour locally adapted aquatic communities. However, across many regions in Africa, these ecosystems and their unique aquatic biodiversity have been severely impacted by unsustainable land use practices. We tested the hypothesis that land use disturbances were the primary drivers of community dynamics by comparing spatial and temporal dynamics together with trait-environment relationships of macroinvertebrate communities in three headwater streams influenced by different land use practices. The three headwater streams were distinguished based on high conductivity, total dissolved solids and alkaline pH in the agriculture-disturbed stream, and low temperature in a stream whose riparian zone was invaded by non-native vegetation compared to a near-natural stream. Macroinvertebrate taxonomic diversity was, nevertheless, comparable among these three streams. Constrained canonical ordination revealed that seasonality was a major driver of macroinvertebrate dynamics that was reflected mostly by the abundances of six macroinvertebrate taxa (Baetis, Dicentroptelum, Afronurus, Tricorythus, Simulium and Cheumatopsyche), whereas land use contributed a small but significant difference. Trait-environment relationships reflected seasonal changes that included the importance of benthic substratum in winter, the occurrence of collector-gatherer invertebrates in spring and aerial breathing traits in summer. Land use-related traits were, nevertheless, reflected by gill respiration and grazer feeding traits represented by Afronurus in the near-natural stream, predator traits represented by Aeshna and Lestes in the invaded stream, and aerial respiration represented by Enithares, Orectogyrus and Rhagovelia in the agriculture-disturbed stream. Our results suggest that environmental variability associated with seasonality probably played a deterministic role within which land use disturbances operated. Overall, our study suggest that importance of using multiple metrics to unpack the patterns associated with land use disturbances in headwater streams.
format	article
author	Nonjabulo H. Matomela Albert Chakona Wilbert T. Kadye
author_facet	Nonjabulo H. Matomela Albert Chakona Wilbert T. Kadye
author_sort	Nonjabulo H. Matomela
title	Comparative assessment of macroinvertebrate communities within three Afromontane headwater streams influenced by different land use patterns
title_short	Comparative assessment of macroinvertebrate communities within three Afromontane headwater streams influenced by different land use patterns
title_full	Comparative assessment of macroinvertebrate communities within three Afromontane headwater streams influenced by different land use patterns
title_fullStr	Comparative assessment of macroinvertebrate communities within three Afromontane headwater streams influenced by different land use patterns
title_full_unstemmed	Comparative assessment of macroinvertebrate communities within three Afromontane headwater streams influenced by different land use patterns
title_sort	comparative assessment of macroinvertebrate communities within three afromontane headwater streams influenced by different land use patterns
publisher	Elsevier
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/11fcf5a9ba22426785953a30e428fc2c
work_keys_str_mv	AT nonjabulohmatomela comparativeassessmentofmacroinvertebratecommunitieswithinthreeafromontaneheadwaterstreamsinfluencedbydifferentlandusepatterns AT albertchakona comparativeassessmentofmacroinvertebratecommunitieswithinthreeafromontaneheadwaterstreamsinfluencedbydifferentlandusepatterns AT wilberttkadye comparativeassessmentofmacroinvertebratecommunitieswithinthreeafromontaneheadwaterstreamsinfluencedbydifferentlandusepatterns
_version_	1718405646172291072

Comparative assessment of macroinvertebrate communities within three Afromontane headwater streams influenced by different land use patterns

Ejemplares similares