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Published on: May 15, 2017
Forested headwaters mitigate pesticide effects on macroinvertebrate communities in streams: Mechanisms and
Polina Orlinskiy1, Ronald Münze2, Mikhail Beketov3
1UFZ, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, Department System-Ecotoxicology, Permoserstr.15, 04318 Leipzig, Germany; UFZ, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, Department Bioenergy, Permoserstr.15, 04318 Leipzig, Germany; University of Koblenz-Landau, Institute of Environmental Sciences, Fortstraße 7, 76829 Landau, Germany.
Abstract:
Pesticides impact invertebrate communities in freshwater ecosystems, leading to the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem functions. One approach to reduce such effects is to maintain uncontaminated stream reaches that can foster recovery of the impacted populations. We assessed the potential of uncontaminated forested headwaters to mitigate pesticide impact on the downstream macroinvertebrate communities in 37 streams, using the SPEARpesticides index. Pesticide contamination was measured with runoff-triggered techniques and Chemcatcher® passive samplers. The data originated from 3 field studies conducted between 1998 and 2011. The proportion of vulnerable species decreased significantly after pesticide exposure even at low toxicity levels (-4
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