Macroinvertebrate community structure and ecological status in Portuguese streams across climatic and water scarcity gradients

Abstract

Climatic and hydrological variation is of utmost importance in regions of the globe facing water scarcity and river intermittency (e.g. areas under Mediterranean influence). The main aim of this study was to compare the macroinvertebrate community structure and its bioindicator value (i.e. waterbody ecological status) in streams from three Portuguese regions (Regions C, N and S), representing distinct climatic features and water availability scenarios. Results showed that, overall, sampling sites differed in their climatic, hydromorphological and physical and chemical features, and environmental (abiotic) and ecological (community dissimilarities) gradients among regions were clearly identified. Sites from Regions C (wettest) and S (driest) represented non-overlapping clusters of samples, both in terms of their environmental context and ecological (dis)similarity; sites from Region N occupied an intermediate position, and their macroinvertebrate community was highly variable locally. This coincided with overall higher ecological quality and uniformity in Region C, whereas Regions N and S were more heterogeneous and generally presented lower ecological quality. Our data showed that climate (and associated water scarcity) is coupled with other environmental drivers of the macroinvertebrate community structure, highlighting a shared influence of the three environmental components (climatic, hydromorphological, and physical and chemical) in the modulation of macroinvertebrate communities.