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Hydromorphological complexity as a driver of the diversity of benthic invertebrate communities in the Czarny Dunajec River, Polish Carpathians

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Abstract

To verify whether the variability in benthic invertebrate communities along the mountainous Czarny Dunajec River is mainly driven by the variation in hydromorphological or water quality, diversity of the communities was determined for 18 cross-sections with 1–5 low-flow channels and compared with the complexity of physical habitat conditions and with physico-chemical water quality. An increase in the complexity of flow pattern in the river was associated with increasing cross-sectional variability in physical habitat parameters. Distinct hydromorphological characteristics of the cross-sections with a given number of low-flow channels were especially pronounced if the analysis was limited to the parameters measured directly, whereas calculated complex hydraulic and sedimentary variables represented information overload. Taxonomic richness of the invertebrate communities was unrelated to physico-chemical water parameters, which consistently pointed to the high water quality. Instead, the richness positively correlated with a degree of variation in physical habitat parameters and was best predicted by the number of low-flow channels in a river cross-section. This study indicates that physical habitat complexity in a mountain river can be considered a proxy to the diversity of its invertebrate communities and that restoration of such complexity will be necessary for future recovery of invertebrate communities in impacted river sections.

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Acknowledgments

This study was performed within the scope of the Research Project No. N N305 097239 financed by the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education. The authors thank two anonymous reviewers for their critical comments on the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Nature Conservation, Polish Academy of Sciences, al. Mickiewicza 33, 31-120, Kraków, Poland

    Bartłomiej Wyżga

  2. Department of Environmental Engineering, Warsaw University of Life Sciences, ul. Nowoursynowska 159, 02-787, Warszawa, Poland

    Paweł Oglęcki

  3. Department of Hydraulic Engineering and Geotechnique, University of Agriculture, al. Mickiewicza 24/28, 30-059, Kraków, Poland

    Artur Radecki-Pawlik

  4. Institute of Zoology, Jagiellonian University, ul. Gronostajowa 9, 30-387, Kraków, Poland

    Tomasz Skalski

  5. Institute of Geography, Pedagogical University, ul. Podchorążych 2, 30-084, Kraków, Poland

    Joanna Zawiejska

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  1. Bartłomiej Wyżga
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Correspondence to Bartłomiej Wyżga.

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Wyżga, B., Oglęcki, P., Radecki-Pawlik, A. et al. Hydromorphological complexity as a driver of the diversity of benthic invertebrate communities in the Czarny Dunajec River, Polish Carpathians. Hydrobiologia 696, 29–46 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-012-1180-3

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