Valente-Neto Francisco, Dala-Corte Renato B, Cunico Almir M, Magalhães André L B, Godoy Bruno S, Leal Cecília G, Castro Diego M P, Macedo Diego R, Lima-Junior Dilermando P, Gubiani Éder A, Roque Fabio de O, Teresa Fabrício B, Oliveira Fagner Junior Machado, Becker Fernando G, Brejão Gabriel L, Brito Janaina, Zuanon Jansen, Vitule Jean R S, Dias-Silva Karina, Casatti Lilian, Lima Luciano B, Montag Luciano F A, Callisto Marcos, Dos Santos Mireile R, Hamada Neusa, Pamplin Paulo A Z, Pompeu Paulo S, Leitão Rafael P, Ruaro Renata, Couceiro Sheyla R M, Abilhoa Vinícius, Súarez Yzel R, Martins Renato T
Laboratório de Interações Multitróficas e Biodiversidade, Departamento de Biologia Animal, Instituto de Biologia, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Campinas, SP, Brazil.
Departamento de Ecologia, Universidade Federal de Goiás, Goiânia, GO, Brazil; Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA.
Sci Total Environ. 2025 Feb 15;965:178654. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2025.178654. Epub 2025 Jan 31.
A reliable response of bioindicators to environmental variation is a cornerstone for effective bioassessment and biomonitoring. Fish and aquatic macroinvertebrates are widely used as bioindicators of different human impacts in freshwater ecosystems, but the cost-effectiveness of their usage can be improved through the use of surrogates. We investigated congruence patterns between using different taxonomic and numeric resolutions for aquatic macroinvertebrates and fish to assess community-environment relationships. We also tested whether dataset characteristics (e.g., area sampled, species pool) could explain the variation in the effectiveness of using different taxonomic and numerical resolutions. We used a Brazilian nationwide database encompassing multiple datasets with a gradient of riparian deforestation each. Our findings suggest that families and genera can effectively represent macroinvertebrate genera and fish species, respectively, when using community matrices for assessing community-environment relationships, with an acceptable loss of information. EPT (Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, and Trichoptera) and Characiformes or Siluriformes may be used as a surrogate, in some cases, for the entire assemblages of macroinvertebrates and fish, respectively, but their use may result in higher loss of information. Presence-absence data also presented a minimal loss of information compared to abundance data, for both macroinvertebrates and fish. The variation in congruence levels among macroinvertebrate datasets was less predicted by dataset characteristics than fish. Across distinct resolutions, on average, 10 % and 19 % of the variation in community composition of macroinvertebrates and fish, respectively, was explained by broad-scale environmental variables, and the effect size was negatively affected by the dataset's sample size and spatial extent for fish. Whereas identification at species (fish) and genus (macroinvertebrates) level and quantification of all individuals still provide the best scenario, we provide evidence that coarser taxonomical resolution and presence-absence data can be used as cost-effective alternatives to facilitate biomonitoring and bioassessment of freshwaters in the Neotropical region impacted by deforestation.
生物指示物对环境变化的可靠响应是有效生物评估和生物监测的基石。鱼类和水生大型无脊椎动物被广泛用作淡水生态系统中不同人类影响的生物指示物，但通过使用替代物可以提高其使用的成本效益。我们研究了使用不同分类和数值分辨率的水生大型无脊椎动物和鱼类来评估群落与环境关系时的一致性模式。我们还测试了数据集特征（例如采样面积、物种库）是否可以解释使用不同分类和数值分辨率的有效性差异。我们使用了一个巴西全国性数据库，该数据库包含多个数据集，每个数据集都有河岸森林砍伐梯度。我们的研究结果表明，在使用群落矩阵评估群落与环境关系时，科和属分别可以有效地代表大型无脊椎动物的属和鱼类物种，同时信息损失在可接受范围内。在某些情况下，蜉蝣目、襀翅目和毛翅目（EPT）以及脂鲤目或鲇形目可以分别用作整个大型无脊椎动物和鱼类组合的替代物，但使用它们可能会导致更高的信息损失。对于大型无脊椎动物和鱼类，与丰度数据相比，存在-缺失数据的信息损失也最小。与鱼类相比，数据集特征对大型无脊椎动物数据集之间一致性水平变化的预测作用较小。在不同分辨率下，平均而言，大型无脊椎动物和鱼类群落组成变化的10%和19%分别由广泛的环境变量解释，并且效应大小受到鱼类数据集样本大小和空间范围的负面影响。虽然在物种（鱼类）和属（大型无脊椎动物）水平上进行鉴定并对所有个体进行量化仍然是最佳方案，但我们提供的证据表明，更粗的分类分辨率和存在-缺失数据可以作为具有成本效益的替代方案，以促进对受森林砍伐影响的新热带地区淡水进行生物监测和生物评估。
