The inherent complexity of the natural world has long been a central theme in ecological research, as the patterns and processes that govern ecosystems can operate at multiple spatial and temporal scales. It is clear that to develop general ecological frameworks, we must consider many different factors at different scales, and incorporate ideas from other disciplines. This thesis touches on several of these ideas, first through an analysis of literature, and then with field research examining the role of broad-scale abiotic factors on lotic systems. To determine how integrated aquatic science is currently understood among different researchers, I provide an analysis on communication and exchange of ideas among various subfields in aquatic science. I show that there are clear divisions within the aquatic science literature, suggesting that there is progress to be made on the integration of methods and ideas. Next, I examine the impact of a large-scale geological feature, the Canadian Precambrian Shield, on abiotic conditions in lotic systems, and how these conditions in turn influence the species assemblages of aquatic organisms. This is addressed with both historical survey data, as well as contemporary data, and as a whole, incorporates ideas concerning the relative influence of regional versus local factors, the importance of historical factors on species distributions, and the relationship between the abiotic environment and biological communities. These analyses show that there are distinct fish and macroinvertebrate communities in Shield lotic systems compared to those found in nearby off-Shield sites, indicating that the Shield is an important broad-scale factor influencing local biological communities. This finding, in conjunction with previous knowledge on the influence of historical factors, provides further insight on the structuring of lotic fish and macroinvertebrate communities in Ontario.

The inherent complexity of the natural world has long been a central theme in ecological research, as the patterns and processes that govern ecosystems can operate at multiple spatial and temporal scales. It is clear that to develop general ecological frameworks, we must consider many different factors at different scales, and incorporate ideas from other disciplines. This thesis touches on several of these ideas, first through an analysis of literature, and then with field research examining the role of broad-scale abiotic factors on lotic systems. To determine how integrated aquatic science is currently understood among different researchers, I provide an analysis on communication and exchange of ideas among various subfields in aquatic science. I show that there are clear divisions within the aquatic science literature, suggesting that there is progress to be made on the integration of methods and ideas. Next, I examine the impact of a large-scale geological feature, the Canadian Precambrian Shield, on abiotic conditions in lotic systems, and how these conditions in turn influence the species assemblages of aquatic organisms. This is addressed with both historical survey data, as well as contemporary data, and as a whole, incorporates ideas concerning the relative influence of regional versus local factors, the importance of historical factors on species distributions, and the relationship between the abiotic environment and biological communities. These analyses show that there are distinct fish and macroinvertebrate communities in Shield lotic systems compared to those found in nearby off-Shield sites, indicating that the Shield is an important broad-scale factor influencing local biological communities. This finding, in conjunction with previous knowledge on the influence of historical factors, provides further insight on the structuring of lotic fish and macroinvertebrate communities in Ontario.

Os recursos hídricos são de grande importância para a vida, já que fazem parte dos processos metabólicos dos seres vivos. No decorrer dos anos, o aumento da atividade humana e seus consequentes impactos tem acarretado maior preocupação com a conservação destes recursos. Para que haja consumo de água pelos seres humanos, há a necessidade do tratamento da mesma, retirando-se as impurezas, deixando-a potável. Assim, os efluentes provenientes das atividades humanas, especialmente dos esgotos domésticos, devem ser tratados com precaução antes de serem lançados no corpo receptor diminuindo, de tal modo, a possibilidade de impactos ambientais. Nos ecossistemas aquáticos, os macroinvertebrados aquáticos têm sido utilizados nos últimos anos como ferramenta para avaliações da qualidade ambiental. Sabendo-se da problemática ocasionada pelo despejo de efluentes domésticos em rios e córregos, este trabalho apresenta como objetivo estudar a comunidade de macroinvertebrados do Ribeirão das Cruzes nas áreas à montante e à jusante do recebimento dos efluentes do sistema de tratamento de esgoto do Município de Araraquara. Os macroinvertebrados foram coletados em duas épocas do ano em quatro pontos distintos, utilizando-se rede em \"D\" pelo método de varredura. Juntamente à coleta, foram tomadas medidas in loco do teor de oxigênio dissolvido, pH, condutividade elétrica, temperatura da água, sedimento para determinação do teor de matéria orgânica e água para análise de fósforo e nitrogênio total. Os organismos foram identificados até o nível de família exceto Chironomidae identificados até gêneros ou espécie para posterior aplicação de índices bióticos e comunitários. Os resultados apontam que houve alteração na estrutura comunitária e diminuição na riqueza de macroinvertebrados aquáticos, após a ETE (estação de tratamento de esgoto) de Araraquara. A presença exclusiva do gênero Chironomus no ponto após a ETE aponta para um elevado impacto ambiental. / The hydric resources are essential to life, since they are part of the metabolic processes in living organisms. Along the years, as human activity has increased and its consequent impacts have caused a high concern in order to preserve such resources. In order to have water consumption by humans, it needs to be treated, making it potable. Thus, effluents that originate in human activities - especially domestic sewage - must be treated before being released to the receiving water body, reducing the possibility of environmental impact. In aquatic ecosystems, macroinvertebrates are being used along the last years as a tool to evaluate environmental quality. Once known the problem caused by the release of domestic effluents in rivers and streams, the present project aims to study the macroinvertebrates community within the Cruzes stream, upstream and downstream the area of wastewater treatment effluents from Araraquara municipality. The macroinvertebrates were collected in two seasons of the year at four different points, using network \"D\" by kick sampling method. Along the collection, steps were taken in place of the dissolved oxygen content, pH, electrical conductivity, water temperature, sediment to determine the content of organic matter and water for phosphorus and total nitrogen analysis. The organisms were identified at family level except Chironomidae identified to genera or species for subsequent application of biotic and community levels. The results show that there were changes in the community structure and a decrease in the richness of aquatic macroinvertebrates after the ETE (Treatment Sewage Station) in Araraquara. The exclusive presence Chironomus genre at the point after ETE points to a high environmental impact.

The City of Denton, located in a semi-arid region of Texas, has over 200 manmade ponds within its city limits. Many of these ponds, located in densely populated areas, are engineered to control storm water runoff. There is a general lack of recognition of the value these waters contribute to regional biodiversity and as greenspaces. This study, conducted in Denton, is monitoring habitat variables and macroinvertebrate diversity in a series of ponds selected to represent a gradient of urban influences. The objective of this study is to identify the variables associated with the highest diversity. Using drone imagery and a meter square box sampler, the quantitative approach allowed for delineation of three habitat types and area. The macroinvertebrates where identified to the genus level which allowed for higher resolution and resulted in stronger comparisons of the communities and conditions of the ponds. Taxa richness was positively correlated to pond size and trees along shoreline and negatively associated with average depth. Overall, submerged vegetation supported highest diversity and abundance, especially genera of Chironomidae (Diptera). Conductivity was associated with urban influences and the most urban influenced pond had the lowest taxa richness, but also reduced habitat area. Results of this study conclude that these stormwater ponds benefit to the ecology of the city and provide beautiful, green spaces. If managed correctly, these systems can be incorporated into sustainable development in the future of the City of Denton.

Extreme climatic events such as droughts are known to eliminate aquatic biota and alter community structure and function. Perennial headwater springs provide important drought refugia to benthic macroinvertebrates and an important source of colonists via drift or aerial adults to intermittent streams post-drought. During a supra-seasonal drought in North-central Texas summer and fall 2006, benthic macroinvertebrates from persistent groundwater-dependent macrohabitats of varying hydrological connectivity and riparian shading were studied: perennial riffles, connected pools, shaded disconnected pools, and full sun disconnected pools. Riffles were a distinct habitat with significantly higher taxa richness, proportion of lotic taxa, diversity and evenness than other macrohabitats. Macrohabitats were found to be important refugia for 106 benthic macroinvertebrates and 4 microcrustacean taxa. Throughout the extreme drought, perennially flowing habitats were refugia to 19 taxa (17.9% total taxa) not collected in disconnected pools. Shaded disconnected pools contained lotic taxa not previously known to be able to complete their lifecycles in lentic habitats, emphasizing the importance of groundwater effluent and shading. With the resumption of flow at a downstream intermittent site of Ash Creek in mid-October 2006, an annual recolonization study was conducted comparing the perennial headwaters’ benthic macroinvertebrate taxa richness, densities and community ecology with the downstream intermittent site. The headwaters supported higher mean taxa richness than the intermittent site over the duration of the study (ANOVA P < 0.001). However, the unexpected result of overall decreasing taxa richness at the perennial headwater site from August 2006 to April 2008 appears to reflect lag effects of the supra-seasonal drought combined with effects of multiple spates of 2007, which are factors confounding the point of recovery for taxa richness. Recovery of taxa richness at the intermittent site took 9 months compared to 1 to 2 months reported in other arid and semi-arid streams in the United States recovering from seasonal drying and floods. Sustainable use of groundwater resources and conservation of riparian corridors is vital to protecting groundwater-dependent ecosystems that play a vital role in maintaining regional biodiversity by serving as biotic refugia during catastrophic disturbance.

Exacerbated deep-water hypoxia, brought about by anthropogenic-derived dissolved organic carbon (DOC) input, has potentially detrimental impacts on organisms residing in freshwater ecosystems. Oxygenation of the water column is a potential management strategy to mitigate this impact, and used to alleviate DOC induced oxygen depletion. In this thesis, I investigated the effects of hypolimnic oxygenation on benthic macroinvertebrate and zooplankton biomass and size assemblages in an experimental dystrophic lake. The experiment, which took place between 2017-2020 in a dystrophic brown-water lake consisting of two interconnected basins, was performed according to a Before-After-Control-Impact design. One basin was continuously monitored under reference conditions while the oxygen concentrations of the other basin was experimentally increased halfway through the experimental period. Macroinvertebrates were sampled from the epi-, meta- and hypolimnion while zooplankton were sampled from throughout the water column (0-6 m) and, during 2020, also the hypolimnion (3-6 m) separately. Collected macroinvertebrate and zooplankton samples were analyzed for biomass, chironomid body lengths and zooplankton community compositions per basin and treatment. Mean benthic biomass, chironomid biomass and chironomid body length increased in response to oxygenation in the hypolimnion but no effect was found in the epi- or metalimnion habitats. Observed biomass responses were mainly driven by the increase in chironomid biomass. No differences were found in neither zooplankton community assemblages nor biomass following oxygenation. These results suggest that the lack of oxygen-rich habitats act as a major limiting factor for hypolimnic macroinvertebrates and especially for chironomids. Zooplankton, on the other hand, appear to be limited by resource availability as opposed to the abundance of suitable, oxygen-rich habitats only. The results suggest that oxygenation may have clear benefits for deep-water macroinvertebrates. However, as a management tool, it is ineffective as a means to increase zooplankton abundances.

Forestry is a major industry in Sweden and the most common method to harvest timber is to clear-cut large areas. Clear-cutting can alter multiple physical, chemical, and ecological characteristics of headwater streams. To minimize these effects, vegetated riparian ‘buffers zones’ are often spared along streams and lakes. Despite this, there are uncertainties regarding optimal width of buffers to safeguard streams from clearcutting effects. In this study, I ask how riparian buffer width influences stream macroinvertebrate communities, and how this influence may be altered by summer drought. I tested this in 24 headwater streams, half located in northern Sweden and the other half in southern Sweden. Streams in each region included four different buffer width categories (n = 3), including: “no buffer” (no trees left post-harvest), “thin buffer” (&lt; 5 m), “moderate buffer” (&gt; 5 m) and “reference” (no harvest). I analysed a suite of metrics that describe the abundance, richness, and composition of macroinvertebrates, and compared these across streams with different buffer properties. Regionally, southern streams had marginally greater taxonomic richness and relative abundance of sensitive taxa compared to northern counterparts, regardless of buffer conditions. Further, thin and absent buffers performed the best across several macroinvertebrate metrics, particularly for southern streams. Antecedent drought had no observable effects on macroinvertebrate communities, but taxonomic richness across region was positively correlated with stream pH. Overall, my findings, while tentative given low statistical power, suggest that retaining coniferous-dominated buffers may not lead to the desired ecological outcomes in boreal headwaters.

Due to growing human demands for freshwater within the last century, manmade flow alterations are now a common characteristic of rivers worldwide. Alterations to the volume and timing of flows in rivers are known to negatively impact aquatic biodiversity, biological productivity and ecosystem functions such as nutrient cycling. While previous research has focused on the effects of flow reductions and spates, there is a lack of knowledge on how high flows across longer timespans (i.e. ‘enhanced flows’) impact the structure of river communities and the integrity of ecosystem functions. The Utah Reclamation, Mitigation and Conservation Commission has expressed interest in reducing enhanced flows in a central Utah river so as to benefit aquatic habitat and native game fish. With their funding support, I collected aquatic invertebrate and ecosystem function data under natural and enhanced flow conditions throughout Sixth Water Creek and Diamond Fork River. These data were supplemented with historical invertebrate data collected by BIO-West, Incorporated. For each river segment, I tested whether flow volume and variation had relationships with the density and health of streambed invertebrate communities. I also sought to determine how these flow metrics affected leaf litter breakdown, primary production and stream metabolism (i.e. the production and respiration of organic matter). Here, I demonstrate that enhanced flows impact streambed invertebrate communities differently in each river segment, in addition to suppressing stream metabolism system-wide. While streambed communities were mostly unaffected by enhanced flows in Sixth Water Creek, density and community health exhibited negative relationships with flow metrics in Diamond Fork River. In the Lower Diamond Fork mainstem, proportions of pollution-tolerant taxa increased as peak flows increased, while streambed invertebrate density decreased as mean monthly flows increased. Moreover, enhanced flows appeared to severely impact the production of organic matter in Sixth Water Creek and Lower Diamond Fork River. This disproportionate suppression of production over respiration shifted the river towards greater reliance on out-of-stream energy sources. These results demonstrate the importance of considering spatial gradients when investigating community responses to flow alterations, and also reveal how river ecosystems are threatened with losses of in-stream energy supplies under enhanced flows.

The direct effects of a Virginia trout farm on benthic macroinvertebrates were examined using multiple approaches. Static laboratory tests with the amphipod, Hyallela azteca, were conducted with exposures to water taken from a spring, effluent above a sedimentation basin, and effluent below a sedimentation basin. On-site mesocosms were constructed to expose previously colonized artificial substrates to the same treatments as the laboratory tests. Flat-headed mayflies were also collected from a nearby stream and transported to the mesocosms for a 10 day exposure. There was no significant difference between treatments in the laboratory tests after 20 days, but after 28 days the control was significantly lower than the above sedimentation basin treatment in one test. In the multispecies field tests, a clear decrease in total invertebrate abundance and EPT abundance was seen in the effluent treatments compared to the spring water treatments, with a slight improvement in survival in the treatment below the sedimentation basin. However, only total invertebrate abundance after 21 days produced statistically significant differences. A significant difference was detected between the effluent and the spring treatments in the flat-headed mayfly field test. We suggest that the effects seen in this study do not explain the lack of taxa richness in the receiving stream. The main cause of mortality from trout effluents appears to be solids accumulating upon the organisms, and sedimentation basins should be effective best management practices for protecting macroinvertebrates. / Master of Science

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