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