Multi-decadal improvements in the ecological quality of European rivers are not consistently reflected in biodiversity metrics

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Authors

SINCLAIR James S. WELTI Ellen A. R. ALTERMATT Florian ÁLVAREZ-CABRIA Mario AROVIITA Jukka BAKER Nathan J. BAREŠOVÁ Libuše BARQUÍN José BONACINA Luca BONADA Núria CANEDO-ARGÜELLES Miguel CSABAI Zoltán DE EYTO Elvira DOHET Alain DÖRFLINGER Gerald ERIKSEN Tor E. EVTIMOVA Vesela FEIO Maria J. FERRÉOL Martial FLOURY Mathieu FORIO Marie Anne Eurie FORNAROLI Riccardo GOETHALS Peter L. M. HEINO Jani HERING Daniel HUTTUNEN Kaisa-Leena JÄHNIG Sonja C. JOHNSON Richard K. KUGLEROVÁ Lenka KUPILAS Benjamin HOSTE Lionel LARRANAGA Aitor LEITNER Patrick LORENZ Armin W. MCKIE Brendan G. MUOTKA Timo OSADČAJA Diana PAAVOLA Riku PALINAUSKAS Vaidas PAŘIL Petr PILOTTO Francesca POLÁŠEK Marek RASMUSSEN Jes J SCHÄFER Ralf B. SCHMIDT-KLOIBER Astrid SCOTTI Alberto SKUJA Agnija STRAKA Michal STUBBINGTON Rachel TIMM Henn TYUFEKCHIEVA Violeta TZIORTZIS Iakovos VANNEVEL Rudy VÁRBÍRÓ Gábor VELLE Gaute VERDONSCHOT Ralf C. M. VRAY Sarah HAASE Peter

Year of publication 2024
Type Article in Periodical
Magazine / Source Nature Ecology and Evolution
MU Faculty or unit

Faculty of Science

Citation
Web https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-023-02305-4
Doi http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41559-023-02305-4
Keywords Animals; Biodiversity; Ecosystem; Europe; Humans; Invertebrates; Rivers
Description Humans impact terrestrial, marine and freshwater ecosystems, yet many broad-scale studies have found no systematic, negative biodiversity changes (for example, decreasing abundance or taxon richness). Here we show that mixed biodiversity responses may arise because community metrics show variable responses to anthropogenic impacts across broad spatial scales. We first quantified temporal trends in anthropogenic impacts for 1,365 riverine invertebrate communities from 23 European countries, based on similarity to least-impacted reference communities. Reference comparisons provide necessary, but often missing, baselines for evaluating whether communities are negatively impacted or have improved (less or more similar, respectively). We then determined whether changing impacts were consistently reflected in metrics of community abundance, taxon richness, evenness and composition. Invertebrate communities improved, that is, became more similar to reference conditions, from 1992 until the 2010s, after which improvements plateaued. Improvements were generally reflected by higher taxon richness, providing evidence that certain community metrics can broadly indicate anthropogenic impacts. However, richness responses were highly variable among sites, and we found no consistent responses in community abundance, evenness or composition. These findings suggest that, without sufficient data and careful metric selection, many common community metrics cannot reliably reflect anthropogenic impacts, helping explain the prevalence of mixed biodiversity trends.
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