River Drying Causes Local Losses and Regional Gains in Aquatic Invertebrate Metacommunity Diversity: A Cross-Continental Comparison.

ABSTRACT: Drying river networks include non-perennial reaches that cease to flow or dry, and drying is becoming more prevalent with ongoing climate change. Biodiversity responses to drying have been explored mostly at local scales in a few regions, such as Europe and North America, limiting our ability to predict future global scenarios of freshwater biodiversity. Locally, drying acts as a strong environmental filter that selects for species with adaptations promoting resistance or resilience to desiccation, thus reducing aquatic α-diversity. At the river network scale, drying generates complex mosaics of dry and wet habitats, shaping metacommunities driven by both environmental and dispersal processes. By repeatedly resetting community succession, drying can enhance β-diversity in space and time. T

SUBMITTER: Escobar-Camacho D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11826973 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature