Human settlements in headwater catchments are associated with generalist stream food webs

Ziqi CHEN; David DUDGEON; Jia Huan LIEW

doi:10.1007/s10750-021-04620-y

Human settlements in headwater catchments are associated with generalist stream food webs

Ziqi CHEN^*, David DUDGEON, Jia Huan LIEW

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Journal Publications › Journal Article (refereed) › peer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

While a variety of anthropogenic impacts on lotic biodiversity have been documented, food-web responses to catchment development are poorly understood. We selected 27 stream food webs of comparable quality and conducted an analysis to assess the effect of catchment development on food-web structure. We quantified population densities, built-up area, and proximity to urban centres, and calculated a Settlement Index for each catchment using Principal Components Analysis. We also calculated the percentage of agricultural land cover in each catchment. Next, we assessed the correlations between the structural properties of food-webs (species richness, connectance, mean food-chain length, linkage density, trophic generality, and trophic vulnerability) and the Settlement Index as well as agricultural land cover. We found that linkage density, trophic vulnerability (number of consumers per species), and trophic generality (number of resources per species) were higher in streams with greater Settlement Index, indicating a reduction in specialisation. However, no clear trends were observed for species richness, connectance, and mean food-chain length. Agricultural land cover was also not related to food-web structure. We propose that the reduction in specialisation may be driven by species turnover and feeding plasticity, as biotic invasion or species impoverishment was not evident.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	4017-4027
Number of pages	11
Journal	Hydrobiologia
Volume	848
Issue number	17
Early online date	24 May 2021
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-021-04620-y
Publication status	Published - Oct 2021
Externally published	Yes

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
We thank Prof. Luis Mauricio Bini, Dr. Francis J. Burdon and one anonymous reviewer for constructive comments and suggestions that helped improve this paper. We gratefully acknowledge the producers of the University of Canberra’s GlobalWeb database and the authors of publications included in this paper who shared their data, either in the original publication, through third-party access, or upon request. We thank Dr. Alyssa Cirtwill for the advice given in the early stages of the study. Ziqi Chen is grateful for the support by the Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Keywords

Complexity
Feeding plasticity
Food-chain length
Specialisation
Species turnover
Trophic network

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1007/s10750-021-04620-y

Cite this

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title = "Human settlements in headwater catchments are associated with generalist stream food webs",

abstract = "While a variety of anthropogenic impacts on lotic biodiversity have been documented, food-web responses to catchment development are poorly understood. We selected 27 stream food webs of comparable quality and conducted an analysis to assess the effect of catchment development on food-web structure. We quantified population densities, built-up area, and proximity to urban centres, and calculated a Settlement Index for each catchment using Principal Components Analysis. We also calculated the percentage of agricultural land cover in each catchment. Next, we assessed the correlations between the structural properties of food-webs (species richness, connectance, mean food-chain length, linkage density, trophic generality, and trophic vulnerability) and the Settlement Index as well as agricultural land cover. We found that linkage density, trophic vulnerability (number of consumers per species), and trophic generality (number of resources per species) were higher in streams with greater Settlement Index, indicating a reduction in specialisation. However, no clear trends were observed for species richness, connectance, and mean food-chain length. Agricultural land cover was also not related to food-web structure. We propose that the reduction in specialisation may be driven by species turnover and feeding plasticity, as biotic invasion or species impoverishment was not evident.",

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author = "Ziqi CHEN and David DUDGEON and LIEW, {Jia Huan}",

note = "Funding Information: We thank Prof. Luis Mauricio Bini, Dr. Francis J. Burdon and one anonymous reviewer for constructive comments and suggestions that helped improve this paper. We gratefully acknowledge the producers of the University of Canberra{\textquoteright}s GlobalWeb database and the authors of publications included in this paper who shared their data, either in the original publication, through third-party access, or upon request. We thank Dr. Alyssa Cirtwill for the advice given in the early stages of the study. Ziqi Chen is grateful for the support by the Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.",

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AU - CHEN, Ziqi

AU - DUDGEON, David

AU - LIEW, Jia Huan

N1 - Funding Information: We thank Prof. Luis Mauricio Bini, Dr. Francis J. Burdon and one anonymous reviewer for constructive comments and suggestions that helped improve this paper. We gratefully acknowledge the producers of the University of Canberra’s GlobalWeb database and the authors of publications included in this paper who shared their data, either in the original publication, through third-party access, or upon request. We thank Dr. Alyssa Cirtwill for the advice given in the early stages of the study. Ziqi Chen is grateful for the support by the Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme. Publisher Copyright: © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

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N2 - While a variety of anthropogenic impacts on lotic biodiversity have been documented, food-web responses to catchment development are poorly understood. We selected 27 stream food webs of comparable quality and conducted an analysis to assess the effect of catchment development on food-web structure. We quantified population densities, built-up area, and proximity to urban centres, and calculated a Settlement Index for each catchment using Principal Components Analysis. We also calculated the percentage of agricultural land cover in each catchment. Next, we assessed the correlations between the structural properties of food-webs (species richness, connectance, mean food-chain length, linkage density, trophic generality, and trophic vulnerability) and the Settlement Index as well as agricultural land cover. We found that linkage density, trophic vulnerability (number of consumers per species), and trophic generality (number of resources per species) were higher in streams with greater Settlement Index, indicating a reduction in specialisation. However, no clear trends were observed for species richness, connectance, and mean food-chain length. Agricultural land cover was also not related to food-web structure. We propose that the reduction in specialisation may be driven by species turnover and feeding plasticity, as biotic invasion or species impoverishment was not evident.

AB - While a variety of anthropogenic impacts on lotic biodiversity have been documented, food-web responses to catchment development are poorly understood. We selected 27 stream food webs of comparable quality and conducted an analysis to assess the effect of catchment development on food-web structure. We quantified population densities, built-up area, and proximity to urban centres, and calculated a Settlement Index for each catchment using Principal Components Analysis. We also calculated the percentage of agricultural land cover in each catchment. Next, we assessed the correlations between the structural properties of food-webs (species richness, connectance, mean food-chain length, linkage density, trophic generality, and trophic vulnerability) and the Settlement Index as well as agricultural land cover. We found that linkage density, trophic vulnerability (number of consumers per species), and trophic generality (number of resources per species) were higher in streams with greater Settlement Index, indicating a reduction in specialisation. However, no clear trends were observed for species richness, connectance, and mean food-chain length. Agricultural land cover was also not related to food-web structure. We propose that the reduction in specialisation may be driven by species turnover and feeding plasticity, as biotic invasion or species impoverishment was not evident.

KW - Complexity

KW - Feeding plasticity

KW - Food-chain length

KW - Specialisation

KW - Species turnover

KW - Trophic network

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DO - 10.1007/s10750-021-04620-y

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JO - Hydrobiologia

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ER -

Human settlements in headwater catchments are associated with generalist stream food webs

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

UN SDGs

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