Abstract
An opportunity to test Coffman's (1989) proposal that ecological heterogeneity is one of the main factors for chironomid species richness occurred when prolonged drought in southern Spain was broken by heavy rain. Chironomid assemblage composition was studied in two Mediterranean mountain first-order streams, one permanent and the other temporary. Samples were collected in the permanent stream over extreme hydrological conditions: 1991–95 with relatively low and stable flow, and 1996–97 with relatively high and unstable flow. The temporary stream flowed, and therefore was sampled, only during the second period. In the permanent stream, spate events resulted in a notable increase in species richness due to the arrival of 32 species and to the permanence of 81% of the species resident over the prespate period. This relatively high percentage suggests that chironomids, as a group, have important resilience properties. However, some species disappeared from the permanent stream after the spates and the considerable decrease in abundance of other species, shows that, at the species level, resilience may vary greatly within the Chironomidae. Most of the species that appeared in the temporary stream were the same as those of the permanent stream during the fast flow period despite the great ecological differences between the two streams under study, suggesting the key role of discharge in structuring chironomid assemblages. The outstanding exception was the fugitive species Orthocladius calvus, the most abundant species in the temporary stream during the initial successional stages but never collected in the permanent stream.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Armitage, P. D., 1995. Behaviour and ecology of adults. In P. Armitage, Cranston, P. S & Pinder, L. C. V. (eds.), The Chironomidae: The Biology and Ecology of Non-biting Midges. Chapman & Hall, London: 194–219.
Batzer, D. P. & V. H. Resh, 1992. Macroinvertebrates of a California seasonal wetland and responses to experimental habitat manipulation. Wetlands 12: 1–7
Boulton, A. J., 1989. Over-summering refuges of aquatic macroinvertebrates in two intermittent streams in central Victoria. Trans. r. Soc. Southern Australia 113: 23–34.
Casas, J. J., 1990. Estudio faunístico, ecológico y sistemático de los quironómidos (Diptera: Chironomidae) de los ríos de Sierra Nevada: Composición y estructura de sus comunidades. Tesis Doctoral, Universidad de Granada, Spain: 419 pp.
Casas, J. J. & A. Vílchez, 1993. Altitudinal distribution of lotic chironomid (Diptera) communities in the Sierra Nevada mountains (Southern Spain). Ann. Limnol. 29: 175–187.
Coffman, W. P., 1989. Factors that determine the species richness of lotic communities of Chironomidae. Acta Biol. Debrec. Oecol. Hung. 3: 95–100.
Coffman, W. P., 1995. Conclusions In Armitage, P. P. S. Cranston, & L. C. V. Pinder (eds), The Chironomidae: The Biology and Ecology of Non-biting Midges. Chapman & Hall, London: 436–447.
Gray, L. J. & S. G. Fisher, 1981. Post-flood recolonization pathways of macroinvertebrates in a lowland Sonoran Desert stream. Am. Midl. Natur. 106: 249–257.
Grimm, N. B., 1993. Implications of climate change for stream communities. In Kareiva, P. M. J. G. Kingsolver, & R. B. Huey (eds), Biotic Interactions and Global Change. Sinauer Associates Inc., Sunderland, MA: 293–314.
Grimm, N. B. & S. G. Fisher, 1989. Stability of periphyton and macroinvertebrates to disturbance by flash floods in a desert stream. J. N. Am. Benthol. Soc. 8: 293–307.
Harrison, S., 1993. Species diversity, spatial scale, and global change. In Kareiva, P.M. J. G. Kingsolver, & R. B. Huey (eds), Biotic Interactions and Global Change. Sinauer Associates Inc., Sunderland, MA: 388–401.
King, J. M., M. P. Henshall-Howard, J. A. Day & B. R. Davies, 1987. Leaf-packs dynamics in a southern Africa mountain stream. Freshwat. Biol. 18: 325–340.
Ladle, M., D. A. Cooling, S. Welton & J. A. B. Bass, 1985. Studies on Chironomidae in experimental recirculating stream systems. II. The growth, development and production of a spring generation of Orthocladius (Euorthocladius) calvus Pinder. Freshwat. Biol. 15: 243–255.
Langton, P. H. 1991. A key to pupal exuviae of West Palaearctic Chironomidae. Privately published by P. H. Langton, 3 St Felix Road, Ramsey Forty Foot, Cambridgeshire.
Laville, H. & F. Reiss, 1992. The chironomid fauna of the Mediterranean region. Neth. J. aquat. Ecol. 26: 239–245.
Miller, A. M. & S. W. Golladay, 1996. Effects of spates and drying on macroinvertebrate assemblages of an intermittent and a perennial prairie stream. J. n. am. benthol. Soc. 15: 670–689.
Schreiber, E. S. G., 1995. Stream drift of Chironomidae: diel and seasonal patterns in the Acheron river, Victoria, Australia. In P. Cranston (ed.), Chironomids: from Genes to Ecosystems. CSIRO, Australia: 205–223.
Schmid-Araya, J.M. & P. E. Schmid, 1995. The invertebrate species of a gravel stream. Jber. Biol. Stn. Lunz 15: 11–21.
Ter Braak, C. J. F., 1989. CANOCO version 3.11, Agricultural Mathematics Group DLO, AC Wageningen, the Netherlands.
Williams, D. D., 1996. Environmental constrains in temporary fresh waters and their consequences for the insect fauna. J. n. am. benthol. Soc. 15: 634–650.
Zwick, P., 1991. Ökologie von Flieβgewässern. Biologie 5: 316–321.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Langton, P.H., Casas, J. Changes in chironomid assemblage composition in two Mediterranean mountain streams over a period of extreme hydrological conditions. Hydrobiologia 390, 37–49 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1003589216389
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1003589216389