Primarily neutral effects of river restoration on macroinvertebrates, macrophytes, and fishes after a decade of monitoring

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F60076658%3A12520%2F23%3A43906239" target="_blank" >RIV/60076658:12520/23:43906239 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/rec.13840" target="_blank" >https://doi.org/10.1111/rec.13840</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/rec.13840" target="_blank" >10.1111/rec.13840</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Primarily neutral effects of river restoration on macroinvertebrates, macrophytes, and fishes after a decade of monitoring

Original language description

Restoring river habitat heterogeneity is expensive and time consuming, yet often has little effect on aquatic biota. Such poor restoration outcomes could be partly caused by the predominance of short-term studies, which do not account for natural temporal fluctuations nor changes in the effects of restoration through time. Consequently, research that examines the longer-term dynamics of river restoration is crucial for providing a temporal perspective of restoration outcomes and for informing the effectiveness of restoration methods. We used the Nidda River in Germany as a case study of the temporal effects of river hydromorphological restoration on different aquatic taxa. We surveyed macroinvertebrate, macrophyte, and fish communities across three sites prerestoration (2008) and then monitored changes in one control versus two restored sites across 10 years (2010-2019). Overall, we found few effects of restoration on the macroinvertebrate and macrophyte communities, with no effects whatsoever on fishes. Restoration improved some components of the macroinvertebrate and macrophyte communities; however, these positive effects were temporally inconsistent and did not translate to improvements in river ecosystem health (based on an index of ecological quality). Our findings illustrate how allowing for more time for community development will not necessarily alter the fact that local-scale river habitat restoration can elicit little to no change in aquatic communities. Combining local- with broad-scale restoration efforts that address the primary drivers of hydroecological decline, in addition to long-term monitoring, may therefore be required to ensure that river restorations successfully meet their ecological goals.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

J_imp - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

10618 - Ecology

Project

—

Continuities

I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Publication year

2023

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

Restoration Ecology

ISSN

1061-2971

e-ISSN

1526-100X

Volume of the periodical

31

Issue of the periodical within the volume

3

Country of publishing house

US - UNITED STATES

Number of pages

12

Pages from-to

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UT code for WoS article

000898660100001

EID of the result in the Scopus database

2-s2.0-85144138512