Habitat connectivity and in-stream vegetation control temporal variability of benthic invertebrate communities.

One of the key challenges to understanding patterns of ß diversity is to disentangle deterministic patterns from stochastic ones. Stochastic processes may mask the influence of deterministic factors on community dynamics, hindering identification of the mechanisms causing variation in community composition. We studied temporal ß diversity (among-year dissimilarity) of macroinvertebrate communities in near-pristine boreal streams across 14 years. To assess whether the observed ß diversity deviates from that expected by chance, and to identify processes (deterministic vs. stochastic) through which different explanatory factors affect community variability, we used a null model approach. We observed that at the majority of sites temporal ß diversity was low indicating high community stability. When stochastic variation was unaccounted for, connectivity was the only variable explaining temporal ß diversity, with weakly connected sites exhibiting higher community variability through time. After accounting for stochastic effects, connectivity lost importance, suggesting that it was related to temporal ß diversity via random colonization processes. Instead, ß diversity was best explained by in-stream vegetation, community variability decreasing with increasing bryophyte cover. These results highlight the potential of stochastic factors to dampen the influence of deterministic processes, affecting our ability to understand and predict changes in biological communities through time.

Multi-stressor impacts on fungal diversity and ecosystem functions in streams: natural vs. anthropogenic stress.

Biological assemblages are often subjected to multiple stressors emerging from both anthropogenic activities and naturally stressful conditions, and species' responses to simultaneous stressors may differ from those predicted based on the individual effects of each stressor alone. We studied the influence of land-use disturbance (forest drainage) on fungal decomposer assemblages and leaf decomposition rates in naturally harsh (low pH caused by black-shale dominated geology) vs. circumneutral streams. We used pyrosequencing to determine fungal richness and assemblage structure. Decomposition rates did not differ between circumneutral and naturally acidic reference sites. However, the effect of forest drainage on microbial decomposition was more pronounced in the naturally acidic streams than in circumneutral streams. Single-effect responses of fungal assemblages were mainly related to geology. Community similarity was significantly higher in the naturally acidic disturbed sites than in corresponding reference sites, suggesting that land-use disturbance simplifies fungal assemblages in naturally stressful conditions. Naturally acidic streams supported distinct fungal assemblages with many OTUs (operational taxonomic unit) unique to these streams. Our results indicate that fungal assemblages in streams are sensitive to both structural and functional impairment in response to multiple stressors. Anthropogenic degradation of naturally acidic streams may decrease regional fungal diversity and impair ecosystem functions, and these globally occurring environments therefore deserve special attention in conservation planning.

Are biological communities in naturally unproductive streams resistant to additional anthropogenic stressors?

Studies on the interactive responses to multiple simultaneously acting stressors have focused on individual or population-level responses in laboratory microcosms, while field-based studies on community-level responses are rare. We examined the influence of a natural (non-anthropogenic acidity) vs. human-induced stress (land drainage) and their interaction on species richness and spatial turnover (ß diversity) of stream diatom, bryophyte, and benthic invertebrate communities. Our four stream categories were: circumneutral reference, circumneutral impacted, naturally acidic, and naturally acidic impacted streams. We expected the most sensitive species to be present only in the circumneutral reference streams. Therefore, species richness should be highest in these streams and lowest in the naturally acidic streams additionally stressed by forest drainage. Alternatively, communities in acidic streams may consist of the most tolerant taxa that are unaffected by further stressors, species richness in these streams remaining unaffected by drainage. We also expected spatial turnover to be highest in the circumneutral near-pristine streams and lowest in the drainage-impacted acidic streams. In all three taxonomic groups, α diversity was lower in the naturally acidic than in circumneutral streams. The additional impact of the anthropogenic stress on species richness varied between groups, having no effect on diatoms, antagonistic effect on bryophytes, and additive effect on invertebrates. We also found differences in how each stressor modified ß diversity of each taxonomic group. For diatoms, ß diversity showed an overall tendency to decrease with increasing stress level, while bryophyte ß diversity responded mainly to forest drainage. Benthic invertebrate ß diversity did not differ between treatments. Our results suggest that non-additive effects among stressors need special attention to improve the understanding and management of multifactor responses in streams. Our results also argue for the primacy of a multi-taxon approach to environmental impact detection, and for the inclusion of a wide array of ecological responses, particularly community turnover, in bioassessment programs to detect responses that may go unnoticed by conventional richness-based measures.