Responses of Multiple Facets of Macroinvertebrate Alpha Diversity to Eutrophication in Floodplain Lakes

Abstract

The accelerated eutrophication process of freshwater lakes has become a widespread global environmental problem. Increasing numbers of studies highlight the need to incorporate functional and phylogenetic information of species into bioassessment programms, but it is still poorly understood how eutrophication affects multiple diversity facets of freshwater communities. Here, we assessed the responses of taxonomic, phylogenetic and functional diversity of benthic macroinvertebrates to water eutrophication in 33 lakes in the Yangtze River floodplain in China. Our results showed that macroinvertebrate assemblage structure was significantly different among four lake groups (river-connected, macrophyte-dominated, macrophyte-algae transition, and algae-dominated). Three taxonomic, two phylogenetic and two functional diversity indices were significantly different among the lake groups. Except for the increasing trend of Lambda+, these metrics showed a clear decreasing trend with increasing levels of eutrophication, with highest values detected in river-connected and macrophyte-dominated lakes, followed by macrophyte-algae transition lakes and algal-dominated lakes. Although differing in the number and identity of key environmental and spatial variables among the explanatory models of different diversity indices, environmental factors (eutrophication-related water quality variables) played more important role than spatial factors in structuring all three facets of alpha diversity. The predominant role of environmental filtering can be attributed to the strong eutrophication gradient across the studied lakes. Among the three diversity facets, functional diversity indices performed best in portraying anthropogenic disturbances, with variation in these indices being solely explained by environmental factors. Spatial processes were mostly weak or negligible in accounting for the variation in functional diversity indices, implying that trait-based indices are robust in portraying anthropogenic eutrophication in floodplain lakes. However, variation in some taxonomic and functional diversity indices were also affected by spatial processes, indicating that conservation practitioners and environmental managers should use these metrics with caution when providing solutions for addressing eutrophication in floodplain lakes.

Keywords: nutrient enrichment, macroinvertebrates, multiple facets of alpha diversity, environmental filtering, functional diversity, floodplain ecosystem