0000000000365095
AUTHOR
Peter Haase
Glacial survival and post-glacial recolonization of an arctic-alpine freshwater insect (Arcynopteryx dichroa, Plecoptera, Perlodidae) in Europe
Aim General models for understanding the climate-driven processes of post-glacial colonization in European arctic–alpine species are mainly derived from studies on temperate terrestrial taxa. However, cold-adapted freshwater species may tolerate or even thrive under colder climatic conditions as flowing water habitats are thermally buffered against freezing and extremely cold temperatures. Here, we investigate the European Pleistocene and Holocene history of the arctic–alpine stonefly Arcynopteryx dichroa. Location Europe. Methods We used two genetic data sets (mitochondrial sequence data and nuclear microsatellite data) to investigate the glacial survival and post-glacial recolonization ro…
Cryptic biodiversity loss linked to global climate change
Climate impacts on biodiversity are usually assessed at the morphospecies level. An analysis of the distribution and mitochondrial DNA variability of nine montane aquatic insect species in Europe suggests range contractions will be accompanied by severe loss of genetic diversity. These results imply that morphospecies-scale assessments may greatly underestimate potential biodiversity losses from climate change.
Effect of river restoration on life-history strategies in fish communities
Assessments of river restoration outcomes are mostly based on taxonomic identities of species, which may not be optimal because a direct relationship to river functions remains obscure and results are hardly comparable across biogeographic borders. The use of ecological species trait information instead of taxonomic units may help to overcome these challenges. Abundance data for fish communities were gathered from 134 river restoration projects conducted in Switzerland, Germany and Finland, monitored for up to 15 years. These data were related to a dataset of 22 categories of ecological traits describing fish life-history strategies to assess the outcome of the restoration projects. Restora…
Assessment of ecosystem integrity and service gradients across Europe using the LTER Europe network
Better integration of knowledge from ecological, social and economic science is necessary to advance the understanding and modelling of socio-ecological systems. To model ecosystem integrity (EI) and ecosystem services (ES) at the landscape scale, assessment matrices are commonly used. These matrices assign capacities to provide different services to different land cover types. We revised such an existing matrix and examined the regional heterogeneity in EI and ES provision in Europe and searched for spatial gradients in their provision to elucidate their suitability for large-scale EI and ES mapping in Europe. Overall, 28 sites belonging to the Long-Term Ecological Research network in Euro…
Effects of changing climate on European stream invertebrate communities : A long-term data analysis
Long-term observations on riverine benthic invertebrate communities enable assessments of the potential impacts of global change on stream ecosystems. Besides increasing average temperatures, many studies predict greater temperature extremes and intense precipitation events as a consequence of climate change. In this study we examined long-term observation data (10-32years) of 26 streams and rivers from four ecoregions in the European Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) network, to investigate invertebrate community responses to changing climatic conditions. We used functional trait and multi-taxonomic analyses and combined examinations of general long-term changes in communities with deta…
Molecular data and species distribution models reveal the Pleistocene history of the mayfly Ameletus inopinatus (Ephemeroptera: Siphlonuridae)1
SUMMARY 1. We investigated the Pleistocene and Holocene history of the rare mayfly Ameletus inopinatus EATON 1887 (Ephemeroptera: Siphlonuridae) in Europe. We used A. inopinatus as a model species to explore the phylogeography of montane, cold-tolerant aquatic insects with arctic–alpine distributions. 2. Using species distribution models, we developed hypotheses about the species demographic history in Central Europe and the recolonisation history of Fennoscandia. We tested these hypotheses using mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I (mtCOI) sequence data and compared our genetic results with previously generated microsatellite data to explore genetic diversity distributions of A. inopinatus. …