NOVO REGISTRO DE BIOMPHALARIA INTERMEDIA (MOLLUSCA: GASTROPODA: PLANORBIDAE) PARA O ESTADO DE ALAGOAS, BRASIL

A espécie de Planorbidae, B/ompha/aria intermedia (Paraense & Deslandes) foi previamente registrada apenas no estado de São Paulo e adjacentes. Neste trabalho um novo registro de B. intermedia é apresentado. Os espécimes foram coletados em um açude artificial localizado no município de Maceió, Alagoas. Este novo registro sugere que a distribuição geográfica da espécie é mais ampla do que era acreditado anteriormente

NOVO REGISTRO DE BIOMPHALARIA INTERMEDIA (MOLLUSCA: GASTROPODA: PLANORBIDAE) PARA O ESTADO DE ALAGOAS, BRASIL

A espécie de Planorbidae, B/ompha/aria intermedia (Paraense & Deslandes) foi previamente registrada apenas no estado de São Paulo e adjacentes. Neste trabalho um novo registro de B. intermedia é apresentado. Os espécimes foram coletados em um açude artificial localizado no município de Maceió, Alagoas. Este novo registro sugere que a distribuição geográfica da espécie é mais ampla do que era acreditado anteriormente

Anthropogenic disturbances alter the relationships between environmental heterogeneity and biodiversity of stream insects

Highlights • EH plays a more important role in biodiversity when anthropogenic disturbance is high. • Within a stream site, EH does not affect beta diversity of aquatic insects. • Model selection approach pinpointed the most ecologically meaningful EH metrics. • Managing EH requires knowledge of how disturbances drive biological indicators.The effects of anthropogenic disturbance on multiple facets of biodiversity are poorly understood. In this study, we worked with the hypothesis that anthropogenic disturbances affect the relationship between environmental heterogeneity (EH) and biodiversity. We used a model selection approach to test three predictions. P1: The greater the level of anthropogenic disturbance, the weaker will be the relationship between EH and both taxonomic and functional alpha diversities. P2: The sign and strength of correlations between EH metrics and both taxonomic and functional alpha diversities will depend on the level of anthropogenic disturbance. P3: Taxonomic and functional beta diversities will not respond to the EH gradient. We sampled 76 stream sites in the Brazilian Neotropical savanna and collected insect of the orders Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera and Trichoptera to measure taxonomic and functional alpha and beta diversities. For P1, we did not find a trend of decreasing strength of this relationship with increasing disturbance. Results confirmed P2. Spatial flow diversity was positively correlated to taxonomic and functional alpha diversities in least-disturbed sites. Bankfull height variation was negatively correlated to taxonomic and functional alpha diversities in moderately-disturbed sites. Thalweg depth variation was positively correlated to taxonomic and functional alpha diversities in most-disturbed sites. Results partially confirmed P3 because taxonomic and functional beta diversities correlated with EH metrics in most-disturbed sites. We conclude that the biodiversity-EH relationship is not the same at all levels of anthropogenic disturbance, a finding that has implications for biomonitoring and ecosystem management

Freshwater invertebrate responses to fine sediment stress: a multi-continent perspective

Excessive fine sediment (particles <2 mm) deposition in freshwater systems is a pervasive stressor worldwide. However, understanding of ecological response to excess fine sediment in river systems at the global scale is limited. Here, we aim to address whether there is a consistent response to increasing levels of deposited fine sediment by freshwater invertebrates across multiple geographic regions (Australia, Brazil, New Zealand, and the UK). Results indicate ecological responses are not globally consistent and are instead dependent on both the region and the facet of invertebrate diversity considered, i.e., taxonomic or functional trait structure. Invertebrate communities of Australia were most sensitive to deposited fine sediment, with the greatest rate of change in communities occurring when fine sediment cover was low (below 25% of the reach). Communities in the UK displayed greater tolerance with most compositional change occurring between 30-60% cover. In both New Zealand and Brazil, which included the most heavily sedimented sampled streams, the communities were more tolerant or demonstrated ambiguous responses, likely due to historic environmental filtering of invertebrate communities. We conclude that ecological responses to fine sediment are not generalisable globally and are dependent on landscape filters with regional context and historic land management playing important roles

The relationships between biotic uniqueness and abiotic uniqueness are context dependent across drainage basins worldwide

[EN] Context: Global change, including land-use change and habitat degradation, has led to a decline in biodiversity, more so in freshwater than in terrestrial ecosystems. However, the research on freshwaters lags behind terrestrial and marine studies, highlighting the need for innovative approaches to comprehend freshwater biodiversity. Objectives: We investigated patterns in the relationships between biotic uniqueness and abiotic environmental uniqueness in drainage basins worldwide. Methods: We compiled high-quality data on aquatic insects (mayflies, stoneflies, and caddisflies at genus-level) from 42 drainage basins spanning four continents. Within each basin we calculated biotic uniqueness (local contribution to beta diversity, LCBD) of aquatic insect assemblages, and four types of abiotic uniqueness (local contribution to environmental heterogeneity, LCEH), categorized into upstream land cover, chemical soil properties, stream site landscape position, and climate. A mixed-effects meta-regression was performed across basins to examine variations in the strength of the LCBD-LCEH relationship in terms of latitude, human footprint, and major continental regions (the Americas versus Eurasia). Results: On average, relationships between LCBD and LCEH were weak. However, the strength and direction of the relationship varied among the drainage basins. Latitude, human footprint index, or continental location did not explain significant variation in the strength of the LCBD-LCEH relationship. Conclusions: We detected strong context dependence in the LCBD-LCEH relationship across the drainage basins. Varying environmental conditions and gradient lengths across drainage basins, land-use change, historical contingencies, and stochastic factors may explain these findings. This context dependence underscores the need for basin-specific management practices to protect the biodiversity of riverine systemsSIOpen Access funding provided by University of Oulu (including Oulu University Hospital). The work for this article was supported by the Academy of Finland’s grant to JHeino for the project GloBioTrends (Grant No. 331957). JGG was funded by the European Union Next Generation EU/PRTR (Grant No. AG325). Work by LMB has been continuously supported by the National Council for Scientifc & Technological Development (CNPq) and Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Goiás (FAPEG) (grants 308974/2020–4 and 465610/2014–5). PB and ZC were fnancially supported by the National Research Development and Innovation Ofce (NKFIH FK 135 136), and PB was supported by the János Bolyai Research Scholarship of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences BO-00106–21. LB thanks the National Council for Scientifc and Technological Development (CNPq) for the Scientifc Initiation Fellowship for JVASS and the productivity fellowship in research to LSB (process nº. 305929/2022–4). MC was awarded National Council for Scientifc & Technological Development (CNPq) research productivity grant 304060/2020–8 and received grants (PPM 00104–18, APQ-00261–22) from the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais. SD and JRGM acknowledge funding by the Leibniz Competition (Grant No. J45/2018) and the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF grant agreement number no. 033W034A). DRM was supported by National Council for Scientifc & Technological Development (CNPq) (Grant No. PQ-309763–2020-7). DMPC received a postdoctoral scholarship from P&D Aneel- Cemig GT-611. PH was partially funded by the eLTER PLUS project (Grant Agreement No. 871128). LJ is grateful to 33 Forest, CIKEL Ltd. and Instituto de Floresta Tropical (IFT), Biodiversity Research Consortium Brazil-Norway (BRC), and Norsk Hydro for the fnancial and logistical support for sampling. Brazilian National Council for Scientifc and Technological Development (CNPq) is acknowledged for fnancing the projects and for granting a research productivity fellowship to LJ (304710/2019–9). APJF was supported by Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científco e Tecnológico (CNPq, Brazil, process no. 449315/2014–2 and 481015/2011–6). RL also received a research productivity fellowship from CNPq (grant # 312531/2021–4). MSL received a postdoctoral scholarship from ANEEL/CEMIG (Project GT-599). Part of feld sampling and aquatic insects processing were funded by Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científco e Tecnológico (CNPq; 403758/2021–1); Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Amazonas (FAPEAM; Programa Biodiversa) and INCT ADAPTA II – (CNPq: 465540/2014–7; FAPEAM: 062.1187/2017). NH (308970/2019–5) received productivity fellowships from CNPq. RTM received a fellowship from Biodiversa/FAPEAM (01.02.016301.03271/2021–93). KLM acknowledges fnancial support from the Swiss Federal Ofce for the Environment to undertake data collection. Funding for the Segura River basin project was provided by the Seneca Foundation and the European Fund of Regional Development (PLP10/FS/97). FOR was supported by CNPq research grant. TS was partially funded by grant 13/50424–1 and 21/00619–7 from the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP), and by grant 309496/2021–7 from the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científco e Tecnológico (CNPq). FVN was supported by grant #2021/13299–0, São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP). ALA acknowledges Brazilian National Council for Scientifc and Technological Development (CNPq, Brazil) for granting a postdoctoral scholarship to her (process number: 167873/2022–9

Avaliação Ecológica Rápida de Qualidade de Água e Bioindicadores Bentônicos no Parque Nacional da Serra do Gandarela, Minas Gerais

Durante uma disciplina de pós-graduação, realizamos uma Avaliação Ecológica Rápida sobre qualidade de água e biodiversidade de bioindicadores bentônicos no Parque Nacional (PARNA) da Serra do Gandarela, MG. Os objetivos foram: (a) capacitar profissionais na utilização de metodologias atuais em Rapid Assessment Protocols (RAP) para estudos de diagnóstico e monitoramento de integridade ecológica de ecossistemas aquáticos em regiões de cabeceira de bacias hidrográficas; (b) contribuir ao conhecimento da biodiversidade aquática em corpos d’água no PARNA Serra do Gandarela; (c) fomentar intercâmbio e colaboração entre mestrandos, doutorandos, guarda-parques, visitantes, membros de comitês de bacia, gestores ICMBio, moradores e interessados na conservação de biodiversidade no Quadrilátero Ferrífero; (d) gerar informações de base sobre qualidade de água, biodiversidade de macroinvertebrados bentônicos bioindicadores de qualidade de água no PARNA Serra do Gandarela. Os principais resultados revelam que o PARNA Serra do Gandarela é guardião de riachos de cabeceira em condições de referência, com elevada diversidade de hábitats aquáticos e ótima qualidade de água, onde vivem organismos bentônicos sensíveis, tolerantes e resistentes à poluição. Sendo a Serra do Gandarela responsável pela segurança hídrica de grande parte dos municípios do Quadrilátero Ferrífero de Minas Gerais, é extremamente importante que estes riachos em condições de referência sejam conservados e utilizados em futuros estudos de avaliação de impactos ambientais e programas de monitoramento de condições ecológicas de longo prazo. As condições de alta preservação devem servir como baliza de referência para tomadores de decisão em processos de licenciamento ambiental de empreendimentos potencialmente causadores de impactos ambientais e riscos à biodiversidade

Corbicula fluminea (Corbiculidae, Bivalvia) alters the taxonomic and functional structure of benthic assemblages in neotropical hydropower reservoirs

The objective of this study is to understand how the taxonomic and functional structures of benthic macroinvertebrate assemblages respond to variations in the densities of Corbicula fluminea, an invasive species originated in Asia, in neotropical hydropower reservoirs. For that we tested three hypotheses: (1) Sites with higher densities of C. fluminea exclude benthic taxa linked to soft substrates and increase the densities of taxa linked to hard substrates. (2) Sites with higher densities of C. fluminea support higher diversities than those with natural soft substrates. (3) Higher densities of C. fluminea support higher functional diversities than the natural soft substrate sites. Our results show that C. fluminea densities are correlated with changes in the taxonomic structure, namely substitution of burrowing taxa for those related to hard substrates, and with increased functional diversity. No taxonomic index showed significant correlation with C. fluminea density, but the functional indices (Functional Richness, Functional Dispersion and Rao’s Quadratic Entropy) showed significant positive correlations. Our results show that functional traits are more sensitive ecological indicators of biological alteration of physical habitat than those based on taxonomic composition and diversity metrics

What physical habitat factors determine the distribution of gastropods in neotropical headwater streams?

Freshwater gastropods play a pivotal role in the structure and functioning of freshwater ecosystems, but despite their importance, there are still gaps in their ecology. Our goal was to understand what physical habitat factors are the most important for the distribution of freshwater gastropods in headwater stream ecosystems in the Neotropical Savanna and provide a baseline for conservation and management efforts for freshwater gastropods in this biome. We identified five taxa, each with different environmental prefferences. Littoridina presence related negatively with stream slope, Biomphalaria presence related positively with total dissolved solids and the proportions of cobble, fine sediment and organic matter. Gundlachia presence correlated positively with elevation and the proportion of pools in the site. Physa presence related negatively with total dissolved solids and positively with alkalinity. Melanoides tuberculata presence correlated positively with the proportion of coarse gravel. Our results highlight the challenge for protecting native freshwater gastropod assemblages (and managing non-native invasive species), because environmental preferences vary widely amongst taxa and most are vulnerable to common anthropogenic disturbances

Macroinvertebrados Bentônicos como Bioindicadores no Parque Nacional da Serra de Itabaiana, Sergipe, Brasil

A qualidade da agua e representada por um conjunto de características que envolvem a natureza química, física e biológica. Esta pesquisa objetivou avaliar a composição de bioindicadores nos riachos da Serra de Itabaiana denominados Coqueiro, Agua Fria, Negros e Vermelho como também pretendeu contribuir no plano de manejo e gestão desses recursos. As amostragens foram realizadas nos períodos chuvoso e seco nos 4 riachos. Os parâmetros físicos e químicos foram mensurados in situ e amostras de sedimentos para o estudo das comunidades bentônicas foram coletadas com coletor tipo Surber. As amostras foram realizadas em treplicas, seguidas de duas pseudoréplicas por ponto. Os parâmetros físico-químicos mantiveram-se dentro dos limites da Resolução CONAMA n° 357 (2005). No total, 5.389 macroinvertebrados foram coletados e identificados em 50 famílias. Chironomidae representaram 42% do total de invertebrados coletados (n=2.260). O segmento de riacho com maior numero de organismos foi o Coqueiro (n=1.304) e o com menor o Agua Fria (n=622). Foi constatada uma diferença significativa (p&lt;0,05), sendo no seco n=3.790 e no chuvoso n=1.599 invertebrados. Os riachos nos limites do parque apresentaram semelhança (H&gt;0,92). Dentre os insetos, foram encontrados 970 individuos das ordens EPT, com predomínio de Trichoptera (n=478, aproximadamente 50%). Os riachos possuem todos os grupos funcionais de alimentação, registrando 3.489 coletores-catadores (64,74%) distribuídos em 8 táxons; já os fragmentadores apresentaram apenas 50 indivíduos (0,92%) com 6 táxons. Em suma, os resultados indicam que as áreas dentro da unidade de conservação apresentaram condições ambientais mais favoráveis

Physical habitat condition as a key tool to maintain freshwater biodiversity in neotropical artificial ponds

In areas highly affected by anthropogenic disturbances, artificial (human-made) freshwater ecosystems can provide habitat for maintaining and conserving regional freshwater biodiversity. We assessed how the physical habitat of artificial ponds affected the structure of benthic macroinvertebrate assemblages. To do so, we tested two hypotheses. (1) Physical habitat disturbances are not detrimental to the diversity of nearby artificial ponds, and (2) Physical habitat disturbances do not cause significant shifts in taxonomic composition. Our results rejected both null hypotheses, i.e., macroinvertebrate diversity metrics correlated significantly and positively with Physical Habitat Integrity index scores, and only sites with high habitat condition scores were significantly associated with sensitive indicator taxa. Our results highlight the importance of maintaining physical habitat conditions for sustaining the ecological health of artificial ponds