Stream benthic macroinvertebrates abundances over a 6-year monitoring period of an Italian glacier-fed stream

Aquatic macroinvertebrates are widely used as bioindicators for water quality assessments involving different kinds of disruptive factors, such as hydrological regime variations or pollutant spills. Recently, they demonstrated to be effective in monitoring effects of climate change in alpine stream and rivers. Indeed, since the distribution of macroinvertebrates in glacier-fed streams has been succesfully investigated and described by several authors, the discrepancy in presence/absence and quantity of specific taxa from the established models may represent an early warning of the effects of climatic changes occurring in alpine riverine ecosystems. Together with the present paper, we provide a dataset covering a period of 6 years (2010-2015) sampling of aquatic macroinvertebrates along a longitudinal transect of a glacier-fed stream located in the Italian Alps, inside the International Long Term Ecological Research (ILTER) macrosite of Matsch|Mazia (IT-25). Data were collected during the glacial melt period (April - September), with monthly resolution. Owing to the unique temporal resolution of the dataset, we aim to produce a reliable tool (i.e. reference point) for future ecological assessment on the same stream, but also to similar streams worldwide

Nachhaltigkeit Südtirol – ein interaktives Portal für das Nachhaltigkeitsmonitoring auf Gemeindeebene

Die Agenda 21 fordert die Entwicklung und Anwendung von Indikatoren für eine nachhaltige Entwicklung sowie eine bessere Zugänglichkeit von Informationen. Bei der Umsetzung der Agenda 21 spielen Gemeinden eine entscheidende Rolle, da sie die Umwelt-, Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsentwicklung auf lokaler Ebene steuern, in unmittelbarem Kontakt zu ihren Bürgern stehen und somit eine nachhaltige Entwicklung direkt fördern können. Aus diesem Grund wurde das interaktive Portal „Nachhaltigkeit Südtirol“ (www.sustainability.bz.it) für das Nachhaltigkeitsmonitoring auf Gemeindeebene entwickelt. Es stellt Nutzern mittels eines interaktiven WebGIS 76 Nachhaltigkeitsindikatoren für alle 116 Gemeinden der Autonomen Provinz Bozen-Südtirol (Italien) zur Verfügung. Die Indikatoren werden seit dem Jahr 2000 jährlich aktualisiert. Alle Ergebnisse sowie Dokumentationsblätter zu den Indikatoren können heruntergeladen werden. Das Nachhaltigkeitsportal bietet darüber hinaus drei Tools zur individuellen und detaillierteren Auswertung der Indikatoren und zum Vergleich zwischen Gemeinden bzw. verschiedenen Jahren. Es wurde bereits erfolgreich in lokalen Agenda-21-Prozessen in mehreren Gemeinden Südtirols angewendet

The recovery of European freshwater biodiversity has come to a halt

Owing to a long history of anthropogenic pressures, freshwater ecosystems are among the most vulnerable to biodiversity loss$^{1}$. Mitigation measures, including wastewater treatment and hydromorphological restoration, have aimed to improve environmental quality and foster the recovery of freshwater biodiversity$^{2}$. Here, using 1,816 time series of freshwater invertebrate communities collected across 22 European countries between 1968 and 2020, we quantified temporal trends in taxonomic and functional diversity and their responses to environmental pressures and gradients. We observed overall increases in taxon richness (0.73% per year), functional richness (2.4% per year) and abundance (1.17% per year). However, these increases primarily occurred before the 2010s, and have since plateaued. Freshwater communities downstream of dams, urban areas and cropland were less likely to experience recovery. Communities at sites with faster rates of warming had fewer gains in taxon richness, functional richness and abundance. Although biodiversity gains in the 1990s and 2000s probably reflect the effectiveness of water-quality improvements and restoration projects, the decelerating trajectory in the 2010s suggests that the current measures offer diminishing returns. Given new and persistent pressures on freshwater ecosystems, including emerging pollutants, climate change and the spread of invasive species, we call for additional mitigation to revive the recovery of freshwater biodiversity

The recovery of European freshwater biodiversity has come to a halt

Owing to a long history of anthropogenic pressures, freshwater ecosystems are among the most vulnerable to biodiversity loss1. Mitigation measures, including wastewater treatment and hydromorphological restoration, have aimed to improve environmental quality and foster the recovery of freshwater biodiversity2. Here, using 1,816 time series of freshwater invertebrate communities collected across 22 European countries between 1968 and 2020, we quantified temporal trends in taxonomic and functional diversity and their responses to environmental pressures and gradients. We observed overall increases in taxon richness (0.73% per year), functional richness (2.4% per year) and abundance (1.17% per year). However, these increases primarily occurred before the 2010s, and have since plateaued. Freshwater communities downstream of dams, urban areas and cropland were less likely to experience recovery. Communities at sites with faster rates of warming had fewer gains in taxon richness, functional richness and abundance. Although biodiversity gains in the 1990s and 2000s probably reflect the effectiveness of water-quality improvements and restoration projects, the decelerating trajectory in the 2010s suggests that the current measures offer diminishing returns. Given new and persistent pressures on freshwater ecosystems, including emerging pollutants, climate change and the spread of invasive species, we call for additional mitigation to revive the recovery of freshwater biodiversity.publishedVersio

The recovery of European freshwater biodiversity has come to a halt

Owing to a long history of anthropogenic pressures, freshwater ecosystems are among the most vulnerable to biodiversity loss1. Mitigation measures, including wastewater treatment and hydromorphological restoration, have aimed to improve environmental quality and foster the recovery of freshwater biodiversity2. Here, using 1,816 time series of freshwater invertebrate communities collected across 22 European countries between 1968 and 2020, we quantified temporal trends in taxonomic and functional diversity and their responses to environmental pressures and gradients. We observed overall increases in taxon richness (0.73% per year), functional richness (2.4% per year) and abundance (1.17% per year). However, these increases primarily occurred before the 2010s, and have since plateaued. Freshwater communities downstream of dams, urban areas and cropland were less likely to experience recovery. Communities at sites with faster rates of warming had fewer gains in taxon richness, functional richness and abundance. Although biodiversity gains in the 1990s and 2000s probably reflect the effectiveness of water-quality improvements and restoration projects, the decelerating trajectory in the 2010s suggests that the current measures offer diminishing returns. Given new and persistent pressures on freshwater ecosystems, including emerging pollutants, climate change and the spread of invasive species, we call for additional mitigation to revive the recovery of freshwater biodiversity.N. Kaffenberger helped with initial data compilation. Funding for authors and data collection and processing was provided by the EU Horizon 2020 project eLTER PLUS (grant agreement no. 871128); the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF; 033W034A); the German Research Foundation (DFG FZT 118, 202548816); Czech Republic project no. P505-20-17305S; the Leibniz Competition (J45/2018, P74/2018); the Spanish Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad—Agencia Estatal de Investigación and the European Regional Development Fund (MECODISPER project CTM 2017-89295-P); Ramón y Cajal contracts and the project funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (RYC2019-027446-I, RYC2020-029829-I, PID2020-115830GB-100); the Danish Environment Agency; the Norwegian Environment Agency; SOMINCOR—Lundin mining & FCT—Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, Portugal; the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences; the Swiss National Science Foundation (grant PP00P3_179089); the EU LIFE programme (DIVAQUA project, LIFE18 NAT/ES/000121); the UK Natural Environment Research Council (GLiTRS project NE/V006886/1 and NE/R016429/1 as part of the UK-SCAPE programme); the Autonomous Province of Bolzano (Italy); and the Estonian Research Council (grant no. PRG1266), Estonian National Program ‘Humanitarian and natural science collections’. The Environment Agency of England, the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency and Natural Resources Wales provided publicly available data. We acknowledge the members of the Flanders Environment Agency for providing data. This article is a contribution of the Alliance for Freshwater Life (www.allianceforfreshwaterlife.org).Peer reviewe

Abundances of stream benthic macroinvertebrates influenced by four typical land cover types of the European Alps during an annual investigation in South Tyrol (Italy)

Stream benthic macroinvertebrates have been collected at 14 sites in South Tyrol, on three different sampling occasions (May, July, September), year 2017. Considering the entire hydrological network of South Tyrol, sampling sites were selected according to the following requirements: 1) each sampling site had a homogeneous land cover type at reach scale (buffer area used of 1,000 m x 300 m), one among the types rocks (R), high alpine grasslands (G), coniferous forest (F), valley-bottom pastures (P); 2) the sampling sites had no glacial water source; 3) the sampling sites were situated max. 500 m from any road or trail (for access purpose); 4) for each of the four land cover types mentioned above, the most similar points in regards to landscape composition and topography calculated at the catchment scale were chosen. Organisms were collected through Surber samplings (0.0506 squared metres, mesh size 500 µm) in 3 rocks (R-5, R-29, R-52) and high alpine grasslands (G-133, G-188, G-193) sites, and in 4 coniferous forests (F-51, F-178, F-391, F-621) and valley bottom pastures (P-9, P-37, P-50, P-53) sites. Further details regarding the site selection and their characteristics are explained in the publication resulting from the analysis of this abundances data (see "Supplement to:")

Abundances of benthic invertebrates and related environmental variables over a 5-year sampling period in a glacier-fed stream used for hydropower generation (South Tyrol, Italy)

Stream benthic macroinvertebrates have been collected for a period of 5 consecutive years, twice a year (2015-2019, in April/May and in September/October), along a longitudinal transect of the Saldur stream, a near pristine glacier-fed stream located in South Tyrol, Italy (46°N, 10° E), part of the International Long Term Ecological Research (ILTER) network (site code: IT-25, LTER_EU_IT_100). From year 2016 on, a small "run-of-river" (ROR) hydropower plant (max. 3,200 kW/year) started to operate on the stream, and the sampling sites were chosen accordingly, to examine its potential impact on the riverine ecosystem. Organisms were collected through Surber samplings (0.0506 squared metres, mesh size 500 µm) in 6 sites at different elevation and distance from the glacial source and from the weir of the hydropower plant: Saldur_1 (2,030 m a.s.l.; 4.962 km from glacial source; ~1 km upstream of the weir ), Saldur_2A (2,016 m a.s.l.; 5.225 km from glacial source; ~100 m upstream of the weir), Saldur_2B (2,006 m a.s.l.; 5.325 km from glacial source; located in the river stretch between the weir and the outlet pipe of the two sediment traps of the ROR hydropower plant, so ~ 100 m downstream of the weir); Saldur_2C (1,997 m a.s.l.; 5.486 km from the glacial source; ~50 m downstream of the above mentioned outlet pipe and ~ 150 m downstream of site 2B); Saldur_2D (1,779 m a.s.l.; 8.217 km from the glacial source; ~ 3,000 m downstream of the weir); Saldur_3 (1,645 m a.s.l.; 11.123 km from the glacial source; ~ 6,000 m downstream of the weir). In all sites, three different sub-samples were collected, and the main substrates present at each site were sampled (macrolithal - rocks of 20-40 cm, and mesolithal - rocks of 6-20 cm). Faunal nomenclature fully complies with "Fauna Europaea" standard (https://fauna-eu.org). Contextually, a set of environmental variables was measured (as spot-measurement) during the macroinvertebrate samplings: suspended solids (mL/L); specific conductance at 25° C (mS/cm), water temperature (°C), calculation of the bottom component of the Pfankuch index. Whilst only in 2018 turbidity (NFU) was measured instead of suspended solids, and all the measurements were conducted using a multiparameter meter (HI9829, Hanna Instruments), for all the remaining years suspended solids were measured after 30 minutes of water sedimentation in a Imhoff cone, and specific conductance through a portable conductimeter (Cond 7, XS Instruments)

Abundances of benthic invertebrates over a 5-year sampling period in a glacier-fed stream used for hydropower generation (South Tyrol, Italy)

Stream benthic macroinvertebrates have been collected for a period of 6 consecutive years (2010-2015, from April to September, during the glacial melting) along a longitudinal transect of the Saldur stream, a near pristine glacier-fed stream located in South Tyrol, Italy (46°N, 10° E), part of the International Long Term Ecological Research (ILTER) network (site code: LTER_EU_IT_100). Organisms were collected through Surber samplings (0.0506 squared metres, mesh size 500 µm) in 3 sites at different elevation and distance from the glacial source: Saldur 1 (2,030 m a.s.l.; 4.962 km), Saldur 2 (2,016 m a.s.l.; 5.325 km), Saldur 3 (1,645 m a.s.l.; 11.123 km)

Environmental variables over a 5-year sampling period in a glacier-fed stream used for hydropower generation (South Tyrol, Italy)

In connection to a stream benthic macroinvertebrates survey (doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.922485) a set of environmental variables was measured (as spot-measurement) during the macroinvertebrate samplings: suspended solids (mL/L); specific conductance at 25° C (mS/cm), water temperature (°C), calculation of the bottom component of the Pfankuch index. Whilst only in 2018 turbidity (NFU) was measured instead of suspended solids, and all the measurements were conducted using a multiparameter meter (HI9829, Hanna Instruments), for all the remaining years suspended solids were measured after 30 minutes of water sedimentation in a Imhoff cone, and specific conductance through a portable conductimeter (Cond 7, XS Instruments)

Abundances of stream benthic macroinvertebrates during a 6-year monitoring period of a glacier-fed stream in South Tyrol, Italy

Stream benthic macroinvertebrates have been collected for a period of 6 consecutive years (2010-2015, from April to September, during the glacial melting) along a longitudinal transect of the Saldur stream, a near pristine glacier-fed stream located in South Tyrol, Italy (46°N, 10° E), part of the International Long Term Ecological Research (ILTER) network (site code: LTER_EU_IT_100). Organisms were collected through Surber samplings (0.0506 squared metres, mesh size 500 µm) in 3 sites at different elevation and distance from the glacial source: Saldur 1 (2,030 m a.s.l.; 4.962 km), Saldur 2 (2,016 m a.s.l.; 5.325 km), Saldur 3 (1,645 m a.s.l.; 11.123 km)