Community turnover provides insight into variable invertebrate recovery between restored streams with different integrated catchment management plans |
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Authors: | Sharon Elizabeth Graham John Martin Quinn |
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Affiliation: | 1. National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, Hamilton, New Zealand elizabeth.graham@niwa.co.nz;3. National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, Hamilton, New Zealand |
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Abstract: | ABSTRACT Understanding temporal patterns in restored environments is important for identifying potential barriers to recovery and improved management of degraded habitats. In this paper, we use temporal beta diversity analyses to compare invertebrate community recovery trajectories in three restored agricultural stream sites under different integrated catchment plans, a native forest reference site, and two unmodified pasture control stream sites over 24 years. The restored sites diverged from their initial community composition over time and became more similar to the reference site community, which was relatively stable over time. Variation partitioning showed that prior to restoration beta diversity was primarily associated with environmental and spatial drivers, whereas post-restoration beta diversity was more influenced by temporal and environmental drivers, including changes in substrate size, fine sediments, water clarity, and nutrients, as well as temperature and flow regime. Species’ contributions to beta diversity varied between sites and years, with sensitive EPT taxa contributing more in reference and control sites. However, contributions of some EPT species, particularly mayflies, increased in restored sites post-ICM. In summary, after nearly two decades of ICM, restored stream sites show recovery towards reference conditions, yet differences persist, indicating that rehabilitation may take longer, depending on the restoration goals. |
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Keywords: | Community composition turnover temporal analysis of beta diversity restoration recovery |
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