The Plant Flow Index: A new method to assess the hydroecological condition of temporary rivers and streams

Temporary streams are widespread in global river networks, and hydroecological tools are needed to assess biotic responses to changes in environmental conditions between wet and dry states. Plant communities can be abundant and diverse in temporary streams, and vary in their tolerance of changing wa...

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Autores principales:	Christian G. Westwood, Judy England, Chloe Hayes, Tim Johns, Rachel Stubbington
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Elsevier 2021
Materias:	Intermittency Ephemeral streams Plants Bioassessment Biomonitoring Vegetation Ecology QH540-549.5
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/20a18e7f027f452299af09ac56981cbc
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:20a18e7f027f452299af09ac56981cbc2021-12-01T04:30:58ZThe Plant Flow Index: A new method to assess the hydroecological condition of temporary rivers and streams1470-160X10.1016/j.ecolind.2020.106964https://doaj.org/article/20a18e7f027f452299af09ac56981cbc2021-01-01T00:00:00Zhttp://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1470160X20309031https://doaj.org/toc/1470-160XTemporary streams are widespread in global river networks, and hydroecological tools are needed to assess biotic responses to changes in environmental conditions between wet and dry states. Plant communities can be abundant and diverse in temporary streams, and vary in their tolerance of changing water availability and associated habitat conditions, but globally, no indices have been developed to document community-level responses to intermittence. We present the first index developed to assess plant assemblage responses to changing habitat conditions in temporary stream channels: the Plant Flow Index (PFI). Using a regional 22-year dataset from lowland groundwater-fed headwater streams in the UK, we establish relationships between the occurrence and abundance of 34 common aquatic, semi-aquatic and terrestrial taxa and the proportion of time the channel was dry within the antecedent 12 months. Species/taxon-specific responses to channel drying were weighted and used to calculate a single score representing each community. We compare the PFI to three other plant assessment methods, which demonstrates its greater ability to reflect the effects of intermittent flow and specifically drying events. The PFI represents a flexible index that can be modified to include additional and/or different taxa and their responses to intermittence, allowing its application across regions and river types with contrasting environmental characteristics and intermittence regimes. As temporary streams increase in both space and time, this index represents a valuable tool to track ecological responses to intermittence at both broad and fine spatial and temporal scales.Christian G. WestwoodJudy EnglandChloe HayesTim JohnsRachel StubbingtonElsevierarticleIntermittencyEphemeral streamsPlantsBioassessmentBiomonitoringVegetationEcologyQH540-549.5ENEcological Indicators, Vol 120, Iss , Pp 106964- (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Intermittency Ephemeral streams Plants Bioassessment Biomonitoring Vegetation Ecology QH540-549.5
spellingShingle	Intermittency Ephemeral streams Plants Bioassessment Biomonitoring Vegetation Ecology QH540-549.5 Christian G. Westwood Judy England Chloe Hayes Tim Johns Rachel Stubbington The Plant Flow Index: A new method to assess the hydroecological condition of temporary rivers and streams
description	Temporary streams are widespread in global river networks, and hydroecological tools are needed to assess biotic responses to changes in environmental conditions between wet and dry states. Plant communities can be abundant and diverse in temporary streams, and vary in their tolerance of changing water availability and associated habitat conditions, but globally, no indices have been developed to document community-level responses to intermittence. We present the first index developed to assess plant assemblage responses to changing habitat conditions in temporary stream channels: the Plant Flow Index (PFI). Using a regional 22-year dataset from lowland groundwater-fed headwater streams in the UK, we establish relationships between the occurrence and abundance of 34 common aquatic, semi-aquatic and terrestrial taxa and the proportion of time the channel was dry within the antecedent 12 months. Species/taxon-specific responses to channel drying were weighted and used to calculate a single score representing each community. We compare the PFI to three other plant assessment methods, which demonstrates its greater ability to reflect the effects of intermittent flow and specifically drying events. The PFI represents a flexible index that can be modified to include additional and/or different taxa and their responses to intermittence, allowing its application across regions and river types with contrasting environmental characteristics and intermittence regimes. As temporary streams increase in both space and time, this index represents a valuable tool to track ecological responses to intermittence at both broad and fine spatial and temporal scales.
format	article
author	Christian G. Westwood Judy England Chloe Hayes Tim Johns Rachel Stubbington
author_facet	Christian G. Westwood Judy England Chloe Hayes Tim Johns Rachel Stubbington
author_sort	Christian G. Westwood
title	The Plant Flow Index: A new method to assess the hydroecological condition of temporary rivers and streams
title_short	The Plant Flow Index: A new method to assess the hydroecological condition of temporary rivers and streams
title_full	The Plant Flow Index: A new method to assess the hydroecological condition of temporary rivers and streams
title_fullStr	The Plant Flow Index: A new method to assess the hydroecological condition of temporary rivers and streams
title_full_unstemmed	The Plant Flow Index: A new method to assess the hydroecological condition of temporary rivers and streams
title_sort	plant flow index: a new method to assess the hydroecological condition of temporary rivers and streams
publisher	Elsevier
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/20a18e7f027f452299af09ac56981cbc
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The Plant Flow Index: A new method to assess the hydroecological condition of temporary rivers and streams

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