Daniel Spitale, Marco Fezzi, Nadia Zorzi, Elisabeth Slomp, Sandro Rigotti, Alex Borrini, Olena Bilous, Marco Cantonati
{"title":"Macroinvertebrates but Not Diatoms Are Affected by Streamflow Alteration Below Hydropower Diversions","authors":"Daniel Spitale, Marco Fezzi, Nadia Zorzi, Elisabeth Slomp, Sandro Rigotti, Alex Borrini, Olena Bilous, Marco Cantonati","doi":"10.1002/eco.2712","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"River regulation due to dams and other intake structures has impacted the hydrology, water quality and biology of rivers worldwide. The release of minimum flows still represents the strategy aimed at maintaining certain aspects of the original flow patterns. However, there remains a limited understanding of the consequences of artificially induced flows on water quality and aquatic life across various types of rivers. This study was conducted in Trentino (south‐eastern Alps, Italy) in 60 perennial river reaches (400–2005 m a.s.l.), all located downstream of water abstractions for different hydropower plants. The main goal of this research was to compare the effect of different residual flows on macroinvertebrates and diatoms. The overall effect of discharge was low but still significant only for macroinvertebrates, whereas diatoms were affected mostly by the water chemistry. Both groups responded to the substrate composition and to the hydromorphology, which in turn resulted to be strongly correlated. The biotic indices, originally developed to respond to pollution, were unaffected by the flow reduction, raising concerns about the potential consequences that assessment based on this approach may have on the evaluation of ecological flow. This study emphasizes the importance of considering the broader ecological context in which flow alterations occur, particularly the interaction of hydromorphology and substrate, in understanding their impact on aquatic biota.","PeriodicalId":55169,"journal":{"name":"Ecohydrology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.5000,"publicationDate":"2024-09-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Ecohydrology","FirstCategoryId":"93","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1002/eco.2712","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"ECOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
River regulation due to dams and other intake structures has impacted the hydrology, water quality and biology of rivers worldwide. The release of minimum flows still represents the strategy aimed at maintaining certain aspects of the original flow patterns. However, there remains a limited understanding of the consequences of artificially induced flows on water quality and aquatic life across various types of rivers. This study was conducted in Trentino (south‐eastern Alps, Italy) in 60 perennial river reaches (400–2005 m a.s.l.), all located downstream of water abstractions for different hydropower plants. The main goal of this research was to compare the effect of different residual flows on macroinvertebrates and diatoms. The overall effect of discharge was low but still significant only for macroinvertebrates, whereas diatoms were affected mostly by the water chemistry. Both groups responded to the substrate composition and to the hydromorphology, which in turn resulted to be strongly correlated. The biotic indices, originally developed to respond to pollution, were unaffected by the flow reduction, raising concerns about the potential consequences that assessment based on this approach may have on the evaluation of ecological flow. This study emphasizes the importance of considering the broader ecological context in which flow alterations occur, particularly the interaction of hydromorphology and substrate, in understanding their impact on aquatic biota.
期刊介绍:
Ecohydrology is an international journal publishing original scientific and review papers that aim to improve understanding of processes at the interface between ecology and hydrology and associated applications related to environmental management.
Ecohydrology seeks to increase interdisciplinary insights by placing particular emphasis on interactions and associated feedbacks in both space and time between ecological systems and the hydrological cycle. Research contributions are solicited from disciplines focusing on the physical, ecological, biological, biogeochemical, geomorphological, drainage basin, mathematical and methodological aspects of ecohydrology. Research in both terrestrial and aquatic systems is of interest provided it explicitly links ecological systems and the hydrologic cycle; research such as aquatic ecological, channel engineering, or ecological or hydrological modelling is less appropriate for the journal unless it specifically addresses the criteria above. Manuscripts describing individual case studies are of interest in cases where broader insights are discussed beyond site- and species-specific results.