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Headwater biodiversity among different levels of stream habitat hierarchy

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Abstract

With the current loss of biodiversity and threats to freshwater ecosystems, it is crucial to identify hot-spots of biodiversity and on which spatial scale they can be resolved. Conservation and management of these important ecosystems needs insight into whether most of the regional biodiversity (i.e. γ-diversity) can be found locally (i.e. high α-diversity) or whether it is distributed across the region (i.e. high β-diversity). Biodiversity patterns of benthic macroinvertebrates and diatoms were studied in 30 headwater streams in five Swedish catchments by comparing the relative contribution of α- and β-diversity to γ-diversity between two levels of stream habitat hierarchy (catchment and region level). The relationship between species community structure and local environmental factors was also assessed. Our results show that both α- and β-diversity made a significant contribution to γ-diversity. β-diversity remained relatively constant between the two levels of habitat hierarchy even though local environmental control of the biota decreased from the catchment to the region level. To capture most of headwater γ-diversity, management should therefore target sites that are locally diverse, but at the same time select sites so that β-diversity is maximized. As environmental control of the biota peaked at the catchment level, the conservation of headwater stream diversity is likely to be most effective when management targets environmental conditions across multiple local sites within relatively small catchments.

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Acknowledgments

Financial support for this research was provided by the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, Knowledge Foundation and Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (Johan Temnerud), and the Marie Curie Actions of the European Commission (FP7-2010-PEOPLE-IEF) (Leonard Sandin). Sampling of the Lugnån and Danshytteån catchments were funded by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (contract no. 261 0803). We thank our fellow collaborators for excellent field- and laboratory work: Dan Evander, Amelie Jarlman, Leif Göthe, Jan-Olov Johansson, Kaloyan Kenov, Anna-Karin Persson, Fredrik Pilström, Frida Svanström, Putte Olsson and Per Westerfelt. We also thank Lars Eriksson who was responsible for the macroinvertebrate taxonomy and Elaine McGoff, Richard K. Johnson and three reviewers for providing useful comments on an earlier version of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University, Vejlsøvej 25, P.O. Box 314, 8600, Silkeborg, Denmark

    Emma Göthe, Nikolai Friberg & Leonard Sandin

  2. Department of Aquatic Sciences and Assessment, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, P.O. Box 7050, 750 07, Uppsala, Sweden

    Maria Kahlert & Johan Temnerud

  3. Hydrological Unit, Research Department, Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI), Folkborgsvägen 1, 601 76, Norrköping, Sweden

    Johan Temnerud

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  1. Emma Göthe
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Correspondence to Emma Göthe.

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See Figs. 4 and 5.

Fig. 4
figure 4

Plots showing the observed/expected richness of macroinvertebrates within each catchment (a) and within each site (b–f). The expected richness was obtained through a bootstrap resampling method (see "Materials and methods" section). VD Västerdalälven, OD Österdalälven, LB lower branch, LU Lugnån, and DA Danshytteån

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Fig. 5
figure 5

Plots showing the observed/expected richness of diatoms within each catchment (a) and within each site (b–f). The expected richness was obtained either through a bootstrap resampling method where we had sampling replicates (a) or through the Chao estimator where we had pooled samples (b–f) (see "Materials and methods" section). VD Västerdalälven, OD Österdalälven, LB lower branch, LU Lugnån, and DA Danshytteån

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Göthe, E., Friberg, N., Kahlert, M. et al. Headwater biodiversity among different levels of stream habitat hierarchy. Biodivers Conserv 23, 63–80 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-013-0584-3

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