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Identifying community thresholds for lotic benthic diatoms in response to human disturbance

Although human disturbance indirectly influences lotic assemblages through modifying physical and chemical conditions, identifying thresholds of human disturbance would provide direct evidence for preventing anthropogenic degradation of biological conditions. In the present study, we used data obtai...

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Autores principales: Tang, Tao, Tang, Ting, Tan, Lu, Gu, Yuan, Jiang, Wanxiang, Cai, Qinghua
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5482872/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28646233
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-04445-7
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author Tang, Tao
Tang, Ting
Tan, Lu
Gu, Yuan
Jiang, Wanxiang
Cai, Qinghua
author_facet Tang, Tao
Tang, Ting
Tan, Lu
Gu, Yuan
Jiang, Wanxiang
Cai, Qinghua
author_sort Tang, Tao
collection PubMed
description Although human disturbance indirectly influences lotic assemblages through modifying physical and chemical conditions, identifying thresholds of human disturbance would provide direct evidence for preventing anthropogenic degradation of biological conditions. In the present study, we used data obtained from tributaries of the Three Gorges Reservoir in China to detect effects of human disturbance on streams and to identify disturbance thresholds for benthic diatoms. Diatom species composition was significantly affected by three in-stream stressors including TP, TN and pH. Diatoms were also influenced by watershed % farmland and natural environmental variables. Considering three in-stream stressors, TP was positively influenced by % farmland and % impervious surface area (ISA). In contrast, TN and pH were principally affected by natural environmental variables. Among measured natural environmental variables, average annual air temperature, average annual precipitation, and topsoil % CaCO(3), % gravel, and total exchangeable bases had significant effects on study streams. When effects of natural variables were accounted for, substantial compositional changes in diatoms occurred when farmland or ISA land use exceeded 25% or 0.3%, respectively. Our study demonstrated the rationale for identifying thresholds of human disturbance for lotic assemblages and addressed the importance of accounting for effects of natural factors for accurate disturbance thresholds.
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spelling pubmed-54828722017-06-26 Identifying community thresholds for lotic benthic diatoms in response to human disturbance Tang, Tao Tang, Ting Tan, Lu Gu, Yuan Jiang, Wanxiang Cai, Qinghua Sci Rep Article Although human disturbance indirectly influences lotic assemblages through modifying physical and chemical conditions, identifying thresholds of human disturbance would provide direct evidence for preventing anthropogenic degradation of biological conditions. In the present study, we used data obtained from tributaries of the Three Gorges Reservoir in China to detect effects of human disturbance on streams and to identify disturbance thresholds for benthic diatoms. Diatom species composition was significantly affected by three in-stream stressors including TP, TN and pH. Diatoms were also influenced by watershed % farmland and natural environmental variables. Considering three in-stream stressors, TP was positively influenced by % farmland and % impervious surface area (ISA). In contrast, TN and pH were principally affected by natural environmental variables. Among measured natural environmental variables, average annual air temperature, average annual precipitation, and topsoil % CaCO(3), % gravel, and total exchangeable bases had significant effects on study streams. When effects of natural variables were accounted for, substantial compositional changes in diatoms occurred when farmland or ISA land use exceeded 25% or 0.3%, respectively. Our study demonstrated the rationale for identifying thresholds of human disturbance for lotic assemblages and addressed the importance of accounting for effects of natural factors for accurate disturbance thresholds. Nature Publishing Group UK 2017-06-23 /pmc/articles/PMC5482872/ /pubmed/28646233 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-04445-7 Text en © The Author(s) 2017 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
spellingShingle Article
Tang, Tao
Tang, Ting
Tan, Lu
Gu, Yuan
Jiang, Wanxiang
Cai, Qinghua
Identifying community thresholds for lotic benthic diatoms in response to human disturbance
title Identifying community thresholds for lotic benthic diatoms in response to human disturbance
title_full Identifying community thresholds for lotic benthic diatoms in response to human disturbance
title_fullStr Identifying community thresholds for lotic benthic diatoms in response to human disturbance
title_full_unstemmed Identifying community thresholds for lotic benthic diatoms in response to human disturbance
title_short Identifying community thresholds for lotic benthic diatoms in response to human disturbance
title_sort identifying community thresholds for lotic benthic diatoms in response to human disturbance
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5482872/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28646233
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-04445-7
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