Effects of damming a large lowland river on chironomids and fish assessed with the (multiplicative partitioning of) true/Hill biodiversity measure

Abstract

Abstract The impact of a large lowland temperate zone reservoir on chironomid and fish biodiversity was investigated in the same upstream (U) and downstream (D) sites on the same sampling occasions in spring and autumn of several post‐impoundment years. The true/Hill N 1 diversity measure was used to construct diversity models of the impact, and partitioning of N 1 to reveal the importance of ecological gradients. N 1 is unique in being decomposable among multiple levels and easily comparable across ecosystems and animal groups. Chironomids were more diverse than fish in all community sets owing to their probably lower mobility, lower interspecific competition, opportunistic character and much shorter life spans than those of fish. Fish exerted consumption pressure on chironomids upstream by foraging mostly on benthic insects, but not downstream where they fed on microcrustaceans of reservoir origin or on epiphytic fauna (mainly Chironomidae). The reservoir impact on chironomids decreased their diversity in U and increased in D, while much the opposite was true in fish. In D in macroinvertebrates, the impact consisted in advancing over time intensification of seasonal development of submersed macrophytes, while in D in fish in a few species escaping from the reservoir after their populational explosions each year. Partitioning of diversity revealed that the spatial (upstream–downstream) gradient was the strongest factor of diversity change in chironomids as compared with season, and age of the impoundment. No gradient was dominant in fish. Comparisons of observed data with a null model testified to very strong intraspecific aggregation in both chironomids and fish. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.