Land use influences macroinvertebrate community composition in boreal headwaters through altered stream conditions.
Land use is known to alter the nature of land-water interactions, but the potential effects of widespread forest management on headwaters in boreal regions remain poorly understood. We evaluated the importance of catchment land use, land cover, and local stream variables for macroinvertebrate community and functional trait diversity in 18 boreal headwater streams. Variation in macroinvertebrate metrics was often best explained by in-stream variables, primarily water chemistry (e.g. pH). However, variation in stream variables was, in turn, significantly associated with catchment-scale forestry land use. More specifically, streams running through catchments that were dominated by young (11-50 years) forests had higher pH, greater organic matter standing stock, higher abundance of aquatic moss, and the highest macroinvertebrate diversity, compared to streams running through recently clear-cut and old forests. This indicates that catchment-scale forest management can modify in-stream habitat conditions with effects on stream macroinvertebrate communities and that characteristics of younger forests may promote conditions that benefit headwater biodiversity.
Department of Ecology and Environmental Science, Umeå University, 901 87, Umeå, Sweden. micael.jonsson@umu.se.
Micael
M
Jonsson
Department of Forest Ecology and Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, 901 83, Umeå, Sweden.|Australian Rivers Institute, Griffith University, Brisbane, QLD, 4111, Australia.
Ryan M
RM
Burrows
Department of Ecology and Environmental Science, Umeå University, 901 87, Umeå, Sweden.
Johan
J
Lidman
Department of Ecology and Environmental Science, Umeå University, 901 87, Umeå, Sweden.|Sweden Water Research AB, Ideon Science Park, Scheelevägen 15, 223 70, Lund, Sweden.
Emma
E
Fältström
Department of Forest Ecology and Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, 901 83, Umeå, Sweden.
Hjalmar
H
Laudon
Department of Ecology and Environmental Science, Umeå University, 901 87, Umeå, Sweden.
Ryan A
RA
Sponseller
D000818:Animals; D044822:Biodiversity; D065928:Forests; D007448:Invertebrates; D045483:Rivers; D013548:Sweden
Aquatic insects; Biodiversity; Forestry; Functional traits