Density declines, richness increases, and composition shifts in stream macroinvertebrates

Samantha L. Rumschlag; Michael B. Mahon; Devin K. Jones; William Battaglin; Jonny Behrens; Emily S. Bernhardt; Paul Bradley; Ethan Brown; Frederik De Laender; Ryan Hill; Stefan Kunz; Sylvia Lee; Emma Rosi; Ralf Schäfer; Travis S. Schmidt; Marie Simonin; Kelly Smalling; Kristofor Voss; Jason R. Rohr

doi:10.1126/sciadv.adf4896

Density declines, richness increases, and composition shifts in stream macroinvertebrates

Samantha L. Rumschlag, Michael B. Mahon, Devin K. Jones, William Battaglin, Jonny Behrens, Emily S. Bernhardt, Paul Bradley, Ethan Brown, Frederik De Laender, Ryan Hill, Stefan Kunz, Sylvia Lee, Emma Rosi, Ralf Schäfer, Travis S. Schmidt, Marie Simonin, Kelly Smalling, Kristofor Voss, Jason R. Rohr

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

32 Scopus citations

Abstract

Documenting trends of stream macroinvertebrate biodiversity is challenging because biomonitoring often has limited spatial, temporal, and taxonomic scopes. We analyzed biodiversity and composition of assemblages of >500 genera, spanning 27 years, and 6131 stream sites across forested, grassland, urban, and agricultural land uses throughout the United States. In this dataset, macroinvertebrate density declined by 11% and richness increased by 12.2%, and insect density and richness declined by 23.3 and 6.8%, respectively, over 27 years. In addition, differences in richness and composition between urban and agricultural versus forested and grassland streams have increased over time. Urban and agricultural streams lost the few disturbance-sensitive taxa they once had and gained disturbance-tolerant taxa. These results suggest that current efforts to protect and restore streams are not sufficient to mitigate anthropogenic effects.

Original language	English
Article number	eadf4896
Journal	Science Advances
Volume	9
Issue number	18
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adf4896
State	Published - 2023
Externally published	Yes

Funding

This work was conducted as part of the Analyses of Contaminant Effects in Freshwater Systems: Synthesizing Abiotic and Biotic Stream Datasets for Long-Term Ecological Research Working Group supported by the John Wesley Powell Center for Analysis and Synthesis, funded by the U.S. Geological Survey.

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Rumschlag, S. L., Mahon, M. B., Jones, D. K., Battaglin, W., Behrens, J., Bernhardt, E. S., Bradley, P., Brown, E., De Laender, F., Hill, R., Kunz, S., Lee, S., Rosi, E., Schäfer, R., Schmidt, T. S., Simonin, M., Smalling, K., Voss, K., & Rohr, J. R. (2023). Density declines, richness increases, and composition shifts in stream macroinvertebrates. Science Advances, 9(18), Article eadf4896. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adf4896

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title = "Density declines, richness increases, and composition shifts in stream macroinvertebrates",

abstract = "Documenting trends of stream macroinvertebrate biodiversity is challenging because biomonitoring often has limited spatial, temporal, and taxonomic scopes. We analyzed biodiversity and composition of assemblages of >500 genera, spanning 27 years, and 6131 stream sites across forested, grassland, urban, and agricultural land uses throughout the United States. In this dataset, macroinvertebrate density declined by 11% and richness increased by 12.2%, and insect density and richness declined by 23.3 and 6.8%, respectively, over 27 years. In addition, differences in richness and composition between urban and agricultural versus forested and grassland streams have increased over time. Urban and agricultural streams lost the few disturbance-sensitive taxa they once had and gained disturbance-tolerant taxa. These results suggest that current efforts to protect and restore streams are not sufficient to mitigate anthropogenic effects.",

author = "Rumschlag, {Samantha L.} and Mahon, {Michael B.} and Jones, {Devin K.} and William Battaglin and Jonny Behrens and Bernhardt, {Emily S.} and Paul Bradley and Ethan Brown and {De Laender}, Frederik and Ryan Hill and Stefan Kunz and Sylvia Lee and Emma Rosi and Ralf Sch{\"a}fer and Schmidt, {Travis S.} and Marie Simonin and Kelly Smalling and Kristofor Voss and Rohr, {Jason R.}",

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Rumschlag, SL, Mahon, MB, Jones, DK, Battaglin, W, Behrens, J, Bernhardt, ES, Bradley, P, Brown, E, De Laender, F, Hill, R, Kunz, S, Lee, S, Rosi, E, Schäfer, R, Schmidt, TS, Simonin, M, Smalling, K, Voss, K & Rohr, JR 2023, 'Density declines, richness increases, and composition shifts in stream macroinvertebrates', Science Advances, vol. 9, no. 18, eadf4896. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adf4896

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T1 - Density declines, richness increases, and composition shifts in stream macroinvertebrates

AU - Rumschlag, Samantha L.

AU - Mahon, Michael B.

AU - Jones, Devin K.

AU - Battaglin, William

AU - Behrens, Jonny

AU - Bernhardt, Emily S.

AU - Bradley, Paul

AU - Brown, Ethan

AU - De Laender, Frederik

AU - Hill, Ryan

AU - Kunz, Stefan

AU - Lee, Sylvia

AU - Rosi, Emma

AU - Schäfer, Ralf

AU - Schmidt, Travis S.

AU - Simonin, Marie

AU - Smalling, Kelly

AU - Voss, Kristofor

AU - Rohr, Jason R.

PY - 2023

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AB - Documenting trends of stream macroinvertebrate biodiversity is challenging because biomonitoring often has limited spatial, temporal, and taxonomic scopes. We analyzed biodiversity and composition of assemblages of >500 genera, spanning 27 years, and 6131 stream sites across forested, grassland, urban, and agricultural land uses throughout the United States. In this dataset, macroinvertebrate density declined by 11% and richness increased by 12.2%, and insect density and richness declined by 23.3 and 6.8%, respectively, over 27 years. In addition, differences in richness and composition between urban and agricultural versus forested and grassland streams have increased over time. Urban and agricultural streams lost the few disturbance-sensitive taxa they once had and gained disturbance-tolerant taxa. These results suggest that current efforts to protect and restore streams are not sufficient to mitigate anthropogenic effects.

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Density declines, richness increases, and composition shifts in stream macroinvertebrates

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