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Effects of streamline complexity on the relationships between urban land use and ecological communities in streams

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Abstract

Urban land use can adversely affect the water quality of adjacent streams through interactions at the edges of the two ecosystems. From a landscape ecological perspective, edges control the flow rate of materials between two adjacent systems. Based on the rationale that the streamline complexity formed between land uses and water bodies may function in this manner, we investigated the potential role of streamline complexity in the relationship between stream ecological communities and urban land use in Korea. Various indices of biological indicators including the diatom assemblage index for organic pollution, the trophic diatom index, the Korean saprobic index, and the index of biotic integrity were applied at 80 sampling sites in the Nakdong River system. We computed the fractal dimensions of the streamlines within 1-km buffers and the proportion of urban land use in the watershed within 5-km buffers around the sampling sites. A moderation model was adopted to investigate the role of streamline complexity in the relationship between urban land use and the biological indices of ecological communities. A comparison between a simple geometry regression model and complex geometry models indicated that streamline complexity may moderate the adverse impacts of urban land use on ecological communities in streams. The moderating effect of streamline complexity was particularly significant for assemblages of macroinvertebrates and fishes. Therefore, to enhance the ecological integrity of streams, we strongly recommend considering streamline complexity when restoring channelized streams in developed areas.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate Program, Department of Landscape Architecture, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, 19104-6311, USA

    Jin-Ah Kim

  2. Department of Environmental Design, Konkuk University, Seoul, 143-701, South Korea

    Sang-Woo Lee & Kyung-Jin An

  3. Halla Engineering and Construction, Seoul, 138-734, South Korea

    Gil-Soon Hwang

  4. Department of Health Environmental Science, Konkuk University, Seoul, 143-701, South Korea

    Soon-Jin Hwang

  5. Bureau of Basic Ecological Research, National Institute of Ecology, Seocheon, Choongnam, 325-813, South Korea

    Chulgoo Kim

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  1. Jin-Ah Kim
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Correspondence to Sang-Woo Lee.

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Kim, JA., Lee, SW., Hwang, GS. et al. Effects of streamline complexity on the relationships between urban land use and ecological communities in streams. Paddy Water Environ 14, 299–312 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10333-015-0500-4

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