| Issue |
Knowl. Manag. Aquat. Ecosyst.
Number 424, 2023
Anthropogenic impact on freshwater habitats, communities and ecosystem functioning
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Article Number | 19 | |
| Number of page(s) | 16 | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/kmae/2023014 | |
| Published online | 20 July 2023 | |
Research Paper
Patterns in and predictors of stream and river macroinvertebrate genera and fish species richness across the conterminous USA
1
Amnis Opes Institute, Corvallis, OR, USA
2
Department of Fisheries, Wildlife, & Conservation Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA
3
United States Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development, Center for Public Health and Environmental Assessment, Pacific Ecological Systems Division, Corvallis, OR, USA
4
United States Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Water, 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, Northwest, MC 4502T, Washington, DC 20460, USA
* Corresponding author: hughes.bob@amnisopes.com
** retired
Received:
7
March
2023
Accepted:
2
June
2023
Both native and non-native taxa richness patterns are useful for evaluating areas of greatest conservation concern. To determine those patterns, we analyzed fish and macroinvertebrate taxa richness data obtained at 3475 sites collected by the USEPA's National Rivers and Streams Assessment. We also determined which natural and anthropogenic variables best explained patterns in regional richness. Macroinvertebrate and fish richness increased with the number of sites sampled per region. Therefore, we determined residual taxa richness from the deviation of observed richness from predicted richness given the number of sites per region. Regional richness markedly exceeded average site richness for both macroinvertebrates and fish. Predictors of macroinvertebrate-genus and fish-species residual-regional richness differed. Air temperature was an important predictor in both cases but was positive for fish and negative for macroinvertebrates. Both natural and land use variables were significant predictors of regional richness. This study is the first to determine mean site and regional richness of both fish and aquatic macroinvertebrates across the conterminous USA, and the key anthropogenic drivers of regional richness. Thus, it offers important insights into regional USA biodiversity hotspots.
Key words: Biodiversity / residual richness / regional richness / predictors
© R.M. Hughes et al., Published by EDP Sciences 2023
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License CC-BY-ND (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you may not distribute the modified material.
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