Issue |
Knowl. Manag. Aquat. Ecosyst.
Number 425, 2024
|
|
---|---|---|
Article Number | 15 | |
Number of page(s) | 10 | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/kmae/2024013 | |
Published online | 04 October 2024 |
Research Paper
A permeable hyporheic zone may contribute to buffer the effects of a drying event on prey availability for salmonid juveniles
1
AZTI Marine Research, Basque Research and Technology Alliance (BRTA), Txatxarramendi Ugartea z/g, 48395 Sukarrieta, Spain
2
Université de Pau et des Pays de l'Adour, e2s UPPA, INRAE, ECOBIOP, Saint-Pée-sur-Nivelle, France
3
Lab of Stream Ecology, Dept. of Plant Biology and Ecology, Univ. Basque Country, UPV/EHU, 48080 Bilbao, Spain
* Corresponding author: elorri.arevalo@gmail.com
Received:
20
March
2024
Accepted:
8
August
2024
Climate change is increasing the intensity and frequency of hydrological events in freshwater. Summer droughts and drying events drastically reduce the favourable habitat for aquatic organisms shaping interactions among species. Macroinvertebrates are usually less abundant during severe summer low flows, reducing prey availability for carnivorous fish, such as brown trout (Salmo trutta). To quantify the consequences of a surface water drying event on fish performance, we conducted an experiment in 6 experimental channels naturally fed by water and macroinvertebrates. After a colonisation period for macroinvertebrates, the water level was dropped to the benthic surface for two weeks in 3 channels, while it remained constant in the 3 other channels. After water level restoration, juvenile brown trout were reared for three weeks in the control and dry channels. The drying event did not reduce the abundance of macroinvertebrates. Survival and growth of juvenile trout were unaffected by drying. Our experiment provided circumstantial evidence that the hyporheic zone could potentially serve as an effective refuge for macroinvertebrates, mitigating the effects of drying events on food webs, although this mitigation would strongly depend on sediment characteristics, habitat quality and the composition of the macroinvertebrate community.
Key words: Drying event / young-of-the-year / survival / growth / macroinvertebrates
© E. Arevalo et al., Published by EDP Sciences 2024
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.
Current usage metrics show cumulative count of Article Views (full-text article views including HTML views, PDF and ePub downloads, according to the available data) and Abstracts Views on Vision4Press platform.
Data correspond to usage on the plateform after 2015. The current usage metrics is available 48-96 hours after online publication and is updated daily on week days.
Initial download of the metrics may take a while.