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Seasonal variability in macroinvertebrate assemblages in paired perennial and intermittent streams in Costa Rica

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Abstract

Ecological effects of flooding and drying events are relatively understudied in the Neotropics and less is known about these hydrological extremes in intermittent streams. Neotropical headwater streams in Costa Rica provide opportunities to evaluate the response of macroinvertebrate communities to seasonal changes in flow regime in relatively human undisturbed systems. We quantified the effects of seasonal flow variation on aquatic macroinvertebrate assemblages (i.e., density, richness, and functional traits) within two headwater streams with differing hydrological regimes (i.e., intermittent versus perennial), in the Pacific North of Costa Rica. We sampled macroinvertebrates monthly over a year in riffle and pool habitats. Non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) analyses indicated differences in macroinvertebrate taxonomic richness and density between the two streams and riffle and pool habitats. We found that macroinvertebrates in the intermittent stream riffles had significantly higher richness during the dry season. We also found higher macroinvertebrate functional trait richness in the intermittent stream riffle habitats during the dry season. Our results may be explained by life history traits related to stream velocity preference or tolerance, short life cycles that limit exposure to disturbances, and dispersal capacities and feeding mechanisms that are dependent on water movement.

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Data availability

Datasets are available on a Zenodo repository upon request: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6814705.

Code availability

Code for data analyses was written using R and is available upon request.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Amanda Rugenski, Phillip Bumpers, Alan Covich, and Ron Carroll for providing feedback on the project proposal; Fabricio Camacho, Quint Newcomer, José Montero and Martha Garro at UGA-CR for supporting our work; and various UGA-CR interns for help with field and lab work. We also thank Amy Rosemond for support for sample analysis processing; Tom Maddox and Emmy Deng for analytical support; and Kit Wheeler for advice on ordination data analyses. Lastly, we would like to thank Cody Cox and Jonathan Skaggs for providing assistance with ArcGIS. Any use of trade, product or firm names does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.

Funding

The research was supported by the Odum School of Ecology, University of Georgia.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Odum School of Ecology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, 30602, USA

    Scott Connelly & Seth J. Wenger

  2. Eastern Ecological Science Center, U.S. Geological Survey, Athens, GA, 30602, USA

    Mary C. Freeman

  3. Department of Biology, University of Puerto Rico-Rio Piedras, San Juan, PR, 00931, USA

    Pablo E. Gutiérrez-Fonseca

  4. Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT, 05405, USA

    Pablo E. Gutiérrez-Fonseca

  5. US Army Engineer Research and Development Center, Vicksburg, MS, 39180, USA

    Darixa D. Hernández-Abrams

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  1. Darixa D. Hernández-Abrams
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Contributions

All authors (DDH, SC, MCF, PEG, SJW) contributed substantially to this publication in the following ways: DDH led the project conceptualization and design, data collection, sample processing, data analyses, and manuscript drafting, writing, and editing. SC supported the project conceptualization and design, logistics of field data collection and manuscript drafting and editing. MCF supported the project design, statistical analyses interpretation and manuscript editing. PEG conducted additional data analyses and contributed to the manuscript writing. SJW contributed significantly to the project conceptualization and design, statistical data analyses and interpretation and manuscript writing. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Darixa D. Hernández-Abrams.

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This work was done under compliance with Costa Rican law No. 7317, Ley de Conservación de la Vida Silvestre, MINAE collection permits No. 030-2016-INV-ACAT and No. 005-2017-INV-ACAT.

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Hernández-Abrams, D.D., Connelly, S., Freeman, M.C. et al. Seasonal variability in macroinvertebrate assemblages in paired perennial and intermittent streams in Costa Rica. Hydrobiologia 850, 215–230 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-022-05055-9

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