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Longitudinal extent of acidification effects of plantation forest on benthic macroinvertebrate communities in soft water streams: evidence for localised impact and temporal ecological recovery

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Abstract

Plantation conifer forest can increase the risk of acidification in acid-sensitive catchments with consequences for macroinvertebrates and ecosystem functioning. This study compared headwater streams in forested and non-forested catchments to appraise the distance required for the acid effect on macroinvertebrates to diminish downstream. Strict criteria were followed in the selection of paired streams, including similarities in elevation, aspect, stream order, geographical proximity, geology and soil type, with no inflowing tributaries in the first 2.5 km and no major land-use other than plantation forest and moorland. Consequently two headwater streams (one forested, one non-forested) drained Ordovician sedimentary geology and two headwater streams (one forested, one non-forested) drained Old Red Sandstone (ORS) were selected. All streams drained peaty soils. Up to six sites at 500 m intervals were sampled in triplicate by multihabitat kick sampling. Ecological impact and recovery from acid effects involved the entire macroinvertebrate community, but varied between seasons. Acid-sensitive Ephemeroptera revealed marked effects of episodic acidification, with Baetis rhodani and Rhithrogena semicolorata found to be transient between seasons. The increase in acid-sensitive ephemeropteran species with increasing distance downstream indicates the finite effects of forest mediated acidification on soft water streams in Ireland. Ecological impact appears, therefore, to be localised within the catchment, with ecological recovery occurring a short distance downstream. This is the first study to have reported such results.

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Acknowledgements

This study was funded by the HYDROFOR project which is co-funded by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, and Environmental Protection Agency under the STRIVE Programme 2007–2013. Part of this study was also aided by a UCD Seed funding grant. We would like to acknowledge and thank Dr. Robert Cruikshanks and Ms. Letizia Cocchiglia for their help on fieldwork, and our HYDROFOR colleagues for valuable suggestions. Thanks to Dr. Tasman Crowe for his help with statistics and Prof. Steve Ormerod for his helpful and constructive comments on an earlier version of this manuscript. The comments made by two anonymous reviewers are very much appreciated.

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  1. Freshwater Biodiversity, Ecology and Fisheries Research Group (freBEF), UCD School of Biology and Environmental Science, Science Education and Research Centre (West), University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland

    Hugh B. Feeley, Caroline Kerrigan, Philip Fanning, Edel Hannigan & Mary Kelly-Quinn

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  1. Hugh B. Feeley
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Correspondence to Hugh B. Feeley.

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Feeley, H.B., Kerrigan, C., Fanning, P. et al. Longitudinal extent of acidification effects of plantation forest on benthic macroinvertebrate communities in soft water streams: evidence for localised impact and temporal ecological recovery. Hydrobiologia 671, 217–226 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-011-0719-z

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