SUMMARY 1. Anthropogenic stressors may influence hosts and their pathogens directly or may alter host–pathogendynamics indirectly through interactions with other species. For example, in aquatic ecosystems, eutrophication may be associated with increased or decreased disease risk. Conversely, pathogens can influence community structure and function and are increasingly recognised as importan…
1. Aquatic oligochaetes appear to be pre-adapted to live in the subterranean environment. However, in the absence of genuine troglomorphic characters, the stygobiotic status of groundwater oligochaetes can currently be inferred only from their exclusive presence in the subterranean environment. 2. Aquatic oligochaetes constitute a diverse and mostly endemic fauna. Of the more than 100 spec…
1. Many plants disperse their seeds in waterbodies via hydrochoric transport. Despite a growing body of research into hydrochory, little is known about the fundamental seed traits that determine floatation ability or hydrochoric transport behaviour more generally. Seeds are transported in fluvial systems in one of three phases: surface transport, within the flow or incorporated in bedload. See…
1. There are multiple tools for scientific inference that seem rarely used in research examining the effects of stressors on rivers caused by human impacts. Very few of these scientific tools are ‘new’. While foundational to scientific methods, they seem to have been overlooked or forgotten. The thesis of this paper is that, by looking back to what used to be considered basic knowledge abou…
SUMMARY 1. Stream ecosystem health monitoring and reporting need to be developed in the context of an adaptive process that is clearly linked to identified values and objectives, is informed by rigorous science, guides management actions and is responsive to changing perceptions and values of stakeholders. To be effective, monitoring programmes also need to be underpinned by an understanding…
1. The spatial patterns of groundwater biodiversity in Europe remain poorly known, yet their knowledge is essential to understand local variation in groundwater assemblages and to develop sound conservation policies. We explore here the broad-scale distribution of groundwater biodiversity across Europe, focussing on obligate subterranean species. 2. We compiled published distributional data …
1. Reliable assessments of groundwater biodiversity are urgently needed to resolve current issues relating to the protection of aquifers. The assessment of groundwater biodiversity is hampered by the physical complexity and difficult access to the subterranean environment, which is related to the vastness, high degree of fragmentation and environmental heterogeneity of groundwater systems. Know…
1. Changes in land management (land use and land cover) and water management (including extraction of ground water and diversion of surface waters for irrigation) driven by increases in agricultural production and urban expansion (and fundamentally by population growth) have created multiple stressors on global freshwater ecosystems that we can no longer ignore. 2. The development and test…