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Response of macrophyte communities to flow regulation in mountain streams

TitleResponse of macrophyte communities to flow regulation in mountain streams
Publication TypeArticolo su Rivista peer-reviewed
Year of Publication2016
AuthorsAbati, S., Minciardi Maria Rita, Ciadamidaro S., Fattorini S., and Ceschin S.
JournalEnvironmental Monitoring and Assessment
Volume188
ISSN01676369
KeywordsAlpine streams, Aquatic plants, Bioassessment, Bryophytes, community structure, controlled clinical trial, Dam impacts, Dams, Environmental parameters, human, indicator organism, macrophyte, moss, phylum, Plants (botany), randomized controlled trial, River, River flow, Rivers, Social sciences, water transport
Abstract

River macrophytes are widely used in freshwater ecosystem assessment because of their sensitivity to anthropogenic pressures, even if there are only a few studies that investigated how macrophytes respond to water regime alterations. In this study, we analyzed the effects of dams on river macrophyte communities through a comparison between upstream and downstream sides from 18 dams located in Alps and Apennines. A co-inertia analysis and a Mantel test were applied to assess if the analysis of environmental parameters could be effective in predicting macrophyte community structure. We analyzed morphological and physicochemical inter-site differences and tested the influence of dams on various aspects of community structure (composition, richness, diversity, dominance, coverage) using multivariate randomized block permutation procedure. Plant similarity between sites was evaluated at the level of phylum, and indicator species analysis was performed to identify the taxa most sensitive or tolerant to water regulation. We found that the overall environmental setting overwhelms the dam impact and that the influence of hydrological alteration became apparent when comparing upstream and downstream assemblages at the same dam. In particular, we found that most of taxa had a higher affinity with the downstream side and that in general, stream regulation increases plant richness and coverage, but reduces community evenness. Analyses based on higher taxonomic groups (phyla) demonstrated that this community can be effectively used in bioassessment even at phylum level analysis. In particular, we found that bryophytes, strictly linked with changes in substrate stability, show particular sensitivity to water regulation in mountain streams. © 2016, Springer International Publishing Switzerland.

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URLhttps://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-84975690598&doi=10.1007%2fs10661-016-5420-2&partnerID=40&md5=3bc12a6f47ebf3495ed9232991036f2f
DOI10.1007/s10661-016-5420-2
Citation KeyAbati2016