Relating taxonomy-based traits of macroinvertebrates with river sediment quality based on basic and zero-inflated Poisson models

Abstract To date, approaches in environmental risk assessment (ERA) are based on taxonomy-based descriptions of ecosystems. Due to the widespread occurrence of numerous types of chemicals in the environment and ensuing environmental risks, there is a need to get insight in the relationship between the response of the ecosystem to pollution and the characteristics (traits) of the organisms. The main hypothesis of the present research is that the trait composition of macroinvertebrate communities changes in a consistent manner along general environmental disturbance gradients. In this study, the relationship between maximal body length of macroinvertebrates and environmental variables (e.g. Cu concentration) reflecting river sediment quality in Flanders (Belgium) was analysed. It was found that the abundance at almost all body lengths decreased with a decreasing quality of the river sediment, which could be associated with a decrease in abundance of macroinvertebrate taxa. It was also observed that the number of different body lengths decreased with increasing pollution, which can be linked to a decrease in diversity of the macroinvertebrate community. At low levels of general environmental pollution especially small taxa (  60 mm) decreased. The trend observed for general environmental pollution was further analysed for specific types of metal contamination. Basic and zero-inflated Poisson models showed that with increasing copper pollution, the abundance of larger taxa quickly decreased and only relatively small taxa remained abundant. However, the observed trend was not generally applicable for all contaminants. The results of this research indicate that by using only individual metal concentrations it is not possible to explain the shifts in size distribution of macroinvertebrates. Including other environmental characteristics and other traits could enhance the understanding of how the macroinvertebrate community composition responds to environmental disturbances.

[1]  E. Mccauley,et al.  The influence of size‐dependent life‐history traits on the structure and dynamics of populations and communities , 2003 .

[2]  F. Sangiorgio,et al.  Monitoring with benthic macroinvertebrates: advantages and disadvantages of body size descriptors , 2004 .

[3]  S. Mérigoux,et al.  Hydraulic habitat use with respect to body size of aquatic insect larvae: Case of six species from a French Mediterranean type stream , 2008 .

[4]  Niels De Pauw,et al.  Biotic index for sediment quality assessment of watercourses in Flanders, Belgium , 2001, Aquatic Ecology.

[5]  Philippe Usseglio-Polatera,et al.  Traits of benthic macroinvertebrates in semi‐natural French streams: an initial application to biomonitoring in Europe , 2000 .

[6]  H. Siepel,et al.  Life-history strategies in freshwater macroinvertebrates , 2008 .

[7]  B. Statzner,et al.  Invertebrate traits for the biomonitoring of large European rivers: an initial assessment of alternative metrics , 2003 .

[8]  K. Sand‐Jensen,et al.  Patch dynamics of the stream macrophyte, Callitriche cophocarpa , 1992 .

[9]  William H Clements,et al.  The cost of tolerance: sensitivity of stream benthic communities to UV-B and metals. , 2007, Ecological applications : a publication of the Ecological Society of America.

[10]  D. M. Rosenberg,et al.  Freshwater biomonitoring and benthic macroinvertebrates. , 1994 .

[11]  S. F. Umani,et al.  Biodiversity conservation in Mediterranean and Black Sea lagoons: a trait-oriented approach to benthic invertebrate guilds , 2008 .

[12]  Philippe Usseglio-Polatera,et al.  Biological and ecological traits of benthic freshwater macroinvertebrates: relationships and definition of groups with similar traits , 2000 .

[13]  A. Basset,et al.  Body size mediated coexistence of consumers competing for resources in space , 2007 .

[14]  Carola A. Schriever,et al.  The footprint of pesticide stress in communities--species traits reveal community effects of toxicants. , 2008, The Science of the total environment.

[15]  W. Clements.  SMALL-SCALE EXPERIMENTS SUPPORT CAUSAL RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN METAL CONTAMINATION AND MACROINVERTEBRATE COMMUNITY RESPONSES , 2004 .

[16]  B. Statzner,et al.  Responses of freshwater biota to human disturbances: contribution of J-NABS to developments in ecological integrity assessments , 2010, Journal of the North American Benthological Society.

[17]  Donald J Baird,et al.  Using biological traits to predict species sensitivity to toxic substances. , 2007, Ecotoxicology and environmental safety.

[18]  J. Rasmussen.  Patterns in the Size Structure of Littora Macroinvertebrate Communities1 , 1993 .

[19]  P. Paquin,et al.  Predicting sediment metal toxicity using a sediment biotic ligand model: methodology and initial application , 2005, Environmental toxicology and chemistry.

[20]  Roman Ashauer,et al.  Framework for traits‐based assessment in ecotoxicology , 2011, Integrated environmental assessment and management.

[21]  F. Schöll,et al.  Use of biological traits for interpreting functional relationships in large rivers , 2004 .

[22]  David B. Lindenmayer,et al.  MODELING COUNT DATA OF RARE SPECIES: SOME STATISTICAL ISSUES , 2005 .

[23]  T. Vercauteren,et al.  Macro-invertebraten en waterkwaliteit: determineersleutels voor zoetwatermacro-invertebraten en methoden ter bepaling van de waterkwaliteit , 1991 .

[24]  Donald J. Baird,et al.  Trait patterns of aquatic insects across gradients of flow-related factors: a multivariate analysis of Canadian national data , 2008 .

[25]  Willem Goedkoop,et al.  Traits‐based approaches in bioassessment and ecological risk assessment: Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats , 2011, Integrated environmental assessment and management.

[26]  Branislav Vrana,et al.  A "toolbox" for biological and chemical monitoring requirements for the European Union's Water Framework Directive. , 2006, Talanta.

[27]  Donald J Baird,et al.  Traits‐based ecological risk assessment (TERA): Realizing the potential of ecoinformatics approaches in ecotoxicology , 2011, Integrated environmental assessment and management.

[28]  D. Zwart.  Impact of toxicants on species composition of aquatic communities : concordance of predictions and field , 2005 .

[29]  B. Van de Vijver,et al.  Responses of aquatic organisms to metal pollution in a lowland river in Flanders: a comparison of diatoms and macroinvertebrates. , 2008, The Science of the total environment.

[30]  H. Siepel,et al.  Applying life-history strategies for freshwater macroinvertebrates to lentic waters , 2008 .

[31]  N. LeRoy Poff,et al.  A database of lotic invertebrate traits for North America , 2006 .

[32]  Peter Goethals,et al.  Multimetric Macroinvertebrate Index Flanders (MMIF) for biological assessment of rivers and lakes in Flanders (Belgium) , 2010 .

[33]  G. Sileshi,et al.  Traditional occupancy–abundance models are inadequate for zero-inflated ecological count data , 2009 .

[34]  Donald J Baird,et al.  Trait-Based Ecological Risk Assessment (TERA): The New Frontier , 2008, Integrated environmental assessment and management.

[35]  M. Freeman,et al.  Estimating species occurrence, abundance, and detection probability using zero-inflated distributions. , 2008, Ecology.

[36]  Susan E. Cook.  Quest for an index of community structure sensitive to water pollution , 1976 .