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Seasonal dynamics of macroinvertebrate communities in a semiarid saline spring stream with contrasting environmental conditions

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Abstract

Semiarid saline streams are rare aquatic ecosystem types. Their constituent biota is expected to have adapted evolutionarily to strong hydrological variability and salinity stress; however, their ecology is not well known. In this study, we quantify the seasonal changes in the structure of the macroinvertebrate community in the Reventón Rambla (south-eastern Spain), a permanent saline spring stream which is included in a drainage system consisting of ephemeral dry channels (so-called “ramblas”). Seasonal patterns of community structure were studied in two reaches with contrasting environmental regimes using univariate and multivariate statistics. The upstream site showed more stable environmental conditions than the downstream site, and both sites also differed with regard to species richness, and structural and functional group attributes. On a seasonal basis, community dissimilarity was high during periods when both sites were isolated during summer droughts but dissimilarity decreased when both sites were connected through surface flow. Furthermore, the communities tended to show cyclical trajectories in multivariate ordination space. Rather than being related to salinity stress, these patterns seemed to track the hydrological disturbance regime of this rambla system. Spates tended to disrupt communities, while signs of recovery were evident during low-flow periods. Results suggest that salinity fluctuation does not pose a severe abiotic constraint to these adapted macroinvertebrate communities. Their suits of functional properties provide them with the necessary traits to recover quickly from natural disturbance. While human-caused salinization of streams severely impacts communities eventually reducing their recovery potential, our results suggest that communities in natural saline streams may show similar responses to hydrological disturbance as communities from non-saline streams.

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Acknowledgments

We thank M. R. Vidal-Abarca and M. L. Suárez for valuable support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Regional Centre of Water Research (CREA), University of Castilla-La Mancha, Crtra. de Las Peñas, km 3, Albacete, 02071, Spain

    Jose L. Moreno & Jorge De las Heras

  2. Department of Aquatic Sciences and Assessment, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, P.O. Box 7050, 750 07, Uppsala, Sweden

    David G. Angeler

  3. Institute of Environmental Sciences (ICAM), University of Castilla-La Mancha, Avda. Carlos III s/n, 45071, Toledo, Spain

    David G. Angeler

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  1. Jose L. Moreno
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Correspondence to Jose L. Moreno.

Appendix

Appendix

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Table 6 Macroinvertebrate community in Reventón Rambla showing mean abundances (n = 24) and standard deviation (SD) in each reach (upstream and downstream sites)
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Moreno, J.L., Angeler, D.G. & De las Heras, J. Seasonal dynamics of macroinvertebrate communities in a semiarid saline spring stream with contrasting environmental conditions. Aquat Ecol 44, 177–193 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10452-009-9251-x

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