Influence of discharge patterns on temporal variation of macroinvertebrate communities in forested and deforested streams in a tropical agricultural landscape

Abstract

Deforestation of riparian forests can directly influence stream macroinvertebrate communities, through changes in resource availability, habitat quality, and hydrological alterations. Here we evaluated whether mean discharge and discharge coefficient of variation (CV), estimated over a 15-month study, influenced forested and deforested stream macroinvertebrate communities. Higher diversity and mean discharge were recorded in deforested streams, and community composition was strongly related to mean discharge. Streams formed a gradient of both mean discharges and discharge CV, which both influenced patterns of diversity. Discharge CV negatively influenced diversity in a nonlinear model, whereas both mean discharge and discharge CV influenced differentiation of macroinvertebrate communities among five sampling occasions. Similarity among sampling times within each stream estimated by the Morisita–Horn index decreased with increasing mean discharge, whereas response to CV was quadratic, with higher similarity at intermediate values and lower similarity at more extreme values. These results suggest that stability of stream macroinvertebrate communities display different responses to mean discharge and discharge CV, and that hydrological alterations can interact with land use changes to determine community dynamics at local scales.