Slow drawdown, fast recovery: Stream macroinvertebrate communities improve quickly after large dam decommissioning
dc.contributor.author | Atristain Vega, Miren | |
dc.contributor.author | Solagaistua Zabala, Libe | |
dc.contributor.author | Larrañaga Arrizabalaga, Aitor | |
dc.contributor.author | Von Schiller Calle, Daniel Gaspar ![]() | |
dc.contributor.author | Elosegi Irurtia, Arturo ![]() | |
dc.date.accessioned | 2024-07-05T15:11:10Z | |
dc.date.available | 2024-07-05T15:11:10Z | |
dc.date.issued | 2024-06 | |
dc.identifier.citation | Journal of Applied Ecology 61(6) : 1481-1491 (2024) | es_ES |
dc.identifier.issn | 0021-8901 | |
dc.identifier.issn | 1365-2664 | |
dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/10810/68795 | |
dc.description.abstract | Dam removal is increasingly considered as a river restoration tool for impoundments that harm the environment or have exceeded their lifespan. However, few studies report the ecological consequences of large dam removal. We performed a multiple before-after/control-impact (mBACI) study to investigate the consequences of the decommissioning of a large dam (42 m high) on instream habitat and invertebrate communities in a temperate, forested catchment of northern Spain. Before decommissioning, lack of fine sediments and high concentrations of manganese and iron occurred below the dam but decreased downstream. Invertebrate taxa richness and diversity were reduced, and pollution-sensitive taxa were missing just below the dam. The drawdown of the reservoir, the first step towards its decommissioning, mobilized stored sediments causing frequent turbidity peaks downstream, which nevertheless, caused no detrimental effects on macroinvertebrate communities. One year after drawdown, the communities downstream from the dam, as well as those in the newly formed stream in the area formerly impounded by the reservoir, became very similar to those in control reaches, showing a successful restoration project. Synthesis and applications. Dam decommissioning helps restore instream habitats and facilitates the recovery of invertebrate communities in a very short time frame if there are nearby sources of potential colonizers. Slow drawdown reduces the transport of the sediments accumulated in the reservoir and their potential downstream impacts, even more if prior to drawdown the reservoir is kept full for years to promote the deposition of sediments in marginal areas that will later be readily colonized by trees. | es_ES |
dc.description.sponsorship | The research received funding from the Fundación BBVA (064-17). Additionally, the authors are grateful for financial support from the Basque Government, specifically for the Consolidated Research Group in Stream Ecology (7-CA-18/10), as well as pre-doctoral fellowships provided by the University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU to Miren Atristain. Daniel von Schiller is a Serra Húnter Fellow. The authors extend their special thanks to the municipality of Donostia-San Sebastian and the Artikutza staff for their continuous support throughout the experiment. Open access funding provided by the University of the Basque Country. | es_ES |
dc.language.iso | eng | es_ES |
dc.publisher | Wiley | es_ES |
dc.rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess | es_ES |
dc.rights.uri | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/es/ | * |
dc.subject | before-after/control-impact | es_ES |
dc.subject | connectivity | es_ES |
dc.subject | dam removal | es_ES |
dc.subject | ecosystem structure | es_ES |
dc.subject | mountain stream | es_ES |
dc.subject | restoration | es_ES |
dc.subject | sediment release | es_ES |
dc.title | Slow drawdown, fast recovery: Stream macroinvertebrate communities improve quickly after large dam decommissioning | es_ES |
dc.type | info:eu-repo/semantics/article | es_ES |
dc.rights.holder | © 2024 The Authors. Journal of Applied Ecology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Ecological Society. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes. | es_ES |
dc.rights.holder | Atribución-NoComercial 3.0 España | * |
dc.relation.publisherversion | https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1365-2664.14656 | es_ES |
dc.identifier.doi | 10.1111/1365-2664.14656 | |
dc.departamentoes | Biología vegetal y ecología | es_ES |
dc.departamentoeu | Landaren biologia eta ekologia | es_ES |
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Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as © 2024 The Authors. Journal of Applied Ecology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Ecological Society.
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.