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Aquatic Ecology

, Volume 53, Issue 1, pp 79–96 | Cite as

Decline of freshwater gastropods exposed to recurrent interacting stressors implying cyanobacterial proliferations and droughts

  • Claudia GérardEmail author
  • Emilie Lance
Article
First Online:

Abstract

Freshwater biota increasingly undergo multiple stressors, but we poorly understand to what extent they influence the dynamics of community structure. Here, we study the impact of combined stressor exposure on gastropods at 9-year interval, through a monthly 1-year (2013) monitoring, also providing data on the occurrence of other macroinvertebrate taxa. Previous study in 2004 showed the occurrence of cyanobacterial proliferations, drought, trematode parasites and invasive non-native pulmonate Physa acuta. During the year 2013, we always detected cyanobacterial microcystins (MCs) in gastropods, from 59 to 4149 ng g−1 fresh mass (vs. 0–246 ng g−1 in 2004), suggesting a continuous and increased MC intoxication. Environmental intracellular MC concentrations were high (8–41 µg L−1) from August to October 2013, whereas they were detected only in August 2004 (17 µg L−1). In 2013, we recorded no trematodes among the 2490 sampled gastropods, and P. acuta represented 94% of gastropods (vs. 58% in 2004). After August 2013, nearly all gastropods disappeared as most other macroinvertebrates (except Chironomidae, Ephemeroptera and Trichoptera). The whole decline of gastropods and other macroinvertebrates, and the absence of trematodes strongly suggest adverse conditions in the study site. Despite acute stressful conditions suggested above, gastropod abundance was 13-fold higher in June 2013 (vs. 2004), reflecting successful recolonization and efficient breeding. Most gastropods exposed to drought and toxic bloom were young vulnerable stages. Thus, we supposed alternation of local gastropod extinctions versus recolonization that could induce, on a long term, a loss of diversity to the detriment of the most sensitive species.

Keywords

Gastropoda Co-occurring multiple stressors Toxic blooms Water withdrawal Invasive species Trematodes 
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Notes

Acknowledgments

We thank Valérie Briand for bibliographical assistance.

Author’s contribution

All of the authors read and approved the paper.

Compliance with ethical standards

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.UMR CNRS 6553 ECOBIOUniversité de Rennes 1Rennes CedexFrance
  2. 2.UMR-I 02 SEBIOUniversité de Reims Champagne-ArdenneReims CedexFrance
  3. 3.UMR 7245 MNHN/CNRS Molécules de Communication et Adaptation des Microorganismes, équipe Cyanobactéries Cyanotoxines et EnvironnementMuséum National d’Histoire NaturelleParisFrance

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