Tonkin Jonathan D, Shah Deep Narayan, Kuemmerlen Mathias, Li Fengqing, Cai Qinghua, Haase Peter, Jähnig Sonja C
Department of River Ecology and Conservation, Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum Frankfurt, Gelnhausen, Germany; Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (BiK-F), Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
State Key Laboratory of Freshwater Ecology and Biotechnology, Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, P.R. China.
PLoS One. 2015 Apr 24;10(4):e0123250. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0123250. eCollection 2015.
Little work has been done on large-scale patterns of stream insect richness in China. We explored the influence of climatic and catchment-scale factors on stream insect (Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, Trichoptera; EPT) richness across mid-latitude China. We assessed the predictive ability of climatic, catchment land cover and physical structure variables on genus richness of EPT, both individually and combined, in 80 mid-latitude Chinese streams, spanning a 3899-m altitudinal gradient. We performed analyses using boosted regression trees and explored the nature of their influence on richness patterns. The relative importance of climate, land cover, and physical factors on stream insect richness varied considerably between the three orders, and while important for Ephemeroptera and Plecoptera, latitude did not improve model fit for any of the groups. EPT richness was linked with areas comprising high forest cover, elevation and slope, large catchments and low temperatures. Ephemeroptera favoured areas with high forest cover, medium-to-large catchment sizes, high temperature seasonality, and low potential evapotranspiration. Plecoptera richness was linked with low temperature seasonality and annual mean, and high slope, elevation and warm-season rainfall. Finally, Trichoptera favoured high elevation areas, with high forest cover, and low mean annual temperature, seasonality and aridity. Our findings highlight the variable role that catchment land cover, physical properties and climatic influences have on stream insect richness. This is one of the first studies of its kind in Chinese streams, thus we set the scene for more in-depth assessments of stream insect richness across broader spatial scales in China, but stress the importance of improving data availability and consistency through time.
在中国，关于河流昆虫丰富度的大规模格局的研究较少。我们探讨了气候和集水区尺度因素对中国中纬度地区河流昆虫（蜉蝣目、襀翅目、毛翅目；EPT）丰富度的影响。我们评估了气候、集水区土地覆盖和物理结构变量对EPT属丰富度的预测能力，这些变量单独以及组合起来，应用于80条中国中纬度河流，这些河流跨越了3899米的海拔梯度。我们使用增强回归树进行分析，并探讨它们对丰富度格局影响的性质。气候、土地覆盖和物理因素对河流昆虫丰富度的相对重要性在这三个目之间有很大差异，虽然纬度对蜉蝣目和襀翅目很重要，但它并没有改善任何一个类群的模型拟合度。EPT丰富度与森林覆盖率高、海拔和坡度大、集水区大以及温度低的地区有关。蜉蝣目偏爱森林覆盖率高、集水区大小为中到大型、温度季节性高以及潜在蒸散量低的地区。襀翅目丰富度与低温季节性和年平均值、高坡度、海拔和暖季降雨量有关。最后，毛翅目偏爱高海拔地区，这些地区森林覆盖率高，年平均温度、季节性和干旱程度低。我们的研究结果突出了集水区土地覆盖、物理特性和气候影响对河流昆虫丰富度所起的可变作用。这是在中国河流中同类研究中的首批研究之一，因此我们为在中国更广泛的空间尺度上对河流昆虫丰富度进行更深入的评估奠定了基础，但强调了随着时间推移提高数据可用性和一致性的重要性。
