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Intermediate disturbance hypothesis explains eutrophication and biodiversity pattern in a boreal river basin, China

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Abstract

Eutrophication is a common phenomenon in aquatic ecosystems caused by human disturbance and is regarded as one of the major threats to biodiversity in rivers throughout the world. However, no consistent pattern explains the relationship between eutrophication and biodiversity in rivers. In the present work, we explored fieldwork in connection to the influence of eutrophication on biodiversity in nine streams in a boreal river ecosystem in China. We aimed to test the intermediate disturbance hypothesis (IDH) in our model, which predicts that biodiversity reaches its maximum at intermediate disturbance. We used total phosphorus (TP) as a direct indicator of eutrophication and divided TP concentration into five levels of eutrophication, which represented anthropogenic disturbance of varied intensity. The results obtained from periphyton, macroinvertebrate, and fish assemblages showed that species richness was higher at intermediate eutrophication levels, and the pattern was not impacted by other factors. Our findings may provide important insights into the influence of anthropogenic disturbance on biodiversity in stream ecosystems.

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Data availability

The datasets generated during and analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We are very grateful to the editors and reviewers for valuable comments. We also thank H. Yang for technical assistance.

Funding

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41977193) and the National Science and Technology Basic Resources Survey Program of China (2019FY101704).

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  1. Liaoning Provincial Key Laboratory for Hydrobiology, College of Fisheries and Life Science, Dalian Ocean University, Dalian, China

    Shuang Tian & Xuwang Yin

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  1. Shuang Tian
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  2. Xuwang Yin
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Correspondence to Xuwang Yin.

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Tian, S., Yin, X. Intermediate disturbance hypothesis explains eutrophication and biodiversity pattern in a boreal river basin, China. Hydrobiologia 849, 3389–3399 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-022-04940-7

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