Functional redundancy as a tool for bioassessment: A test using riparian vegetation

Bruno, Daniel; Gutiérrez Cánovas, Cayetano; Velasco, Josefa; Sánchez Fernández, David

Publication:
Functional redundancy as a tool for bioassessment: A test using riparian vegetation

dc.contributor.author	Bruno, Daniel
dc.contributor.author	Gutiérrez Cánovas, Cayetano
dc.contributor.author	Velasco, Josefa
dc.contributor.author	Sánchez Fernández, David
dc.contributor.department	Ecología e Hidrología
dc.date.accessioned	2024-02-06T12:21:31Z
dc.date.available	2024-02-06T12:21:31Z
dc.date.issued	2016-06-05
dc.description	©2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. This document is the Published version of a Published Work that appeared in final form in Science of the Total Environment. To access the final edited and published work see http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.05.186	es
dc.description.abstract	There is an urgent need to track how natural systems are responding to global change in order to better guide management efforts. Traditionally, taxonomically based metrics have been used as indicators of ecosystem integrity and conservation status. However, functional approaches offer promising advantages that can improve bioassessment performance. In this study,we aimto test the applicability of functional redundancy (FR), a functional feature related to the stability, resistance and resilience of ecosystems, as a tool for bioassessment, looking at woody riparian communities in particular. We used linear mixed-effect models to investigate the response of FR and other traditional biomonitoring indices to natural (drought duration) and anthropogenic stress gradients (flow regulation and agriculture) in a Mediterranean basin. Such indices include species richness, a taxonomic index, and the Riparian Quality Index, which is an index of ecological status. Then, we explored the ability of FR and the other indices to discriminate between different intensities of human alteration. FR showed higher explanatory capacity in response to multiple stressors, although we found significant negative relationships between all the biological indices (taxonomic, functional and ecological quality) and stress gradients. In addition, FRwas the most accurate index to discriminate among different categories of human alteration in both perennial and intermittent river reaches, which allowed us to set threshold values to identify undisturbed (reference condition), moderately disturbed and highly disturbed reaches in the two types of river. Using these thresholds and the best-fitting model, we generated a map of human impact on the functional redundancy of riparian communities for all the stretches of the river network. Our results demonstrate that FR presents clear advantages over traditional methods, which suggests that it should be part of the biomonitoring toolbox used for environmental management so as to obtain better predictions of ecosystem response to environmental changes.	es
dc.format	application/pdf	es
dc.format.extent	9	es
dc.identifier.citation	Science of the Total Environment 566–567 (2016) 1268–1276
dc.identifier.doi	http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.05.186
dc.identifier.issn	Print: 0048-9697
dc.identifier.issn	Electrónic: 1879-1026
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10201/138748
dc.language	eng	es
dc.publisher	Elsevier	es
dc.relation	Sin financiación externa a la Universidad	es
dc.rights.accessRights	info:eu-repo/semantics/restrictedAccess
dc.subject	Biomonitoring	es
dc.subject	Functional traits	es
dc.subject	Human impact	es
dc.subject	Ecological indicators	es
dc.subject	Drought	es
dc.subject	Mediterranean rivers	es
dc.subject.other	CDU::5 - Ciencias puras y naturales::57 - Biología	es
dc.title	Functional redundancy as a tool for bioassessment: A test using riparian vegetation	es
dc.type	info:eu-repo/semantics/article	es
dspace.entity.type	Publication	es