Data from: Long-term climate and hydrologic regimes shape stream invertebrate community responses to a hurricane disturbance
Data files
Mar 26, 2024 version files 151.52 KB
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README.md
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Strickland_et_al_2024_core.csv
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Strickland_et_al_2024_envvariables_stormresponse.csv
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Strickland_et_al_2024_kick.csv
Abstract
Disturbances can produce a spectrum of short- and long-term ecological consequences that depend on complex interactions of the characteristics of the event, antecedent environmental conditions, and the intrinsic properties of resistance and resilience of the affected biological system. We used Hurricane Harvey’s impact on coastal rivers of Texas to examine the roles of storm-related changes in hydrology and long-term precipitation regime on the response of stream invertebrate communities to hurricane disturbance. We detected declines in richness, diversity, and total abundance following the storm, but responses were strongly tied to direct and indirect effects of long-term aridity and short-term changes in stream hydrology. The amount of rainfall a site received drove both flood duration and flood magnitude across sites, but lower annual rainfall amounts (i.e., aridity) increased flood magnitude and decreased flood duration. Across all sites, flood duration was positively related to the time it took for invertebrate communities to return to a long-term baseline and flood magnitude drove larger invertebrate community responses (i.e., changes in diversity and total abundance). However, invertebrate response per unit flood magnitude was lower in sub-humid sites, potentially because of differences in refuge availability or ecological-evolutionary interactions. Interestingly, sub-humid streams had temporary large peaks in invertebrate total abundance and diversity following recovery period that may be indicative of the larger organic matter pulses expected in these systems because of their comparatively well-developed riparian vegetation. Our findings show that hydrology and long-term precipitation regime predictably affected invertebrate community responses and, thus, our work underscores the important influence of local climate to ecosystem sensitivity to disturbances.
README: Long-term climate and hydrologic regimes shape stream invertebrate community responses to a hurricane disturbance
Strickland_et_al_2024_core.csv - aquatic benthic invertebrate core sampling data
UID = unique identifier for site_date
Transect = meter spot along transect 0, 25, 50, 75
Site.Code = 9 sites 2 or 3 letter code, see manuscript
MONTH, DAY, YEAR = separate columns for sampling date
Count.XXXX = count of lowest taxonomic resolution, NA should be removed
StormCode = sampling date grouping used for data exploration; was the sampling immediate, before site has recovered to the long-term baseline average total abundance (pre-recovery), recovery, or after-recovery (average)
Strickland_et_al_2024_kick.csv - aquatic invertebrate kick sampling data
UID = unique identifier for site_date
Site.Code = 9 sites 2 or 3 letter code, see manuscript
Month, Day, Year = separate columns for sampling date
Cycle = numeric code to explain the overall sampling event number across sites
Count.XXXX = count of lowest taxonomic resolution, NA should be removed
StormCode = sampling date grouping used for data exploration; was the sampling immediate, before site has recovered to the long-term baseline average total abundance (pre-recovery), recovery, or after-recovery (average)
Strickland_et_al_2024_envvariables_stormresponse.csv - associated environmental data for each sampling date and calculated metrics of response
SITE = 9 sites 2 or 3 letter code, see manuscript
Method = observation from core or kick sampling
flow.RR = return time of flow to average value (see manuscript)
flow.abs.LRR = absolute value of log-response-ratio of flow (see manuscript)
bug.RR = the number of days for total abundance to reach the same average value from post storm sampling
AnnualTemp = average annual air temperature in degrees C
AnnualRain = average annual rainfall at local site in cm
PreStormQ = pre-storm Q
MaxQ.Hurr = max flow rate during hurricane
Prop.Ch.Q = proportional change in flow
storm.rain = amount of local rainfall in cm received over the storm
Transect = meter spot along transect for cores 0, 25, 50, 75
UID3.imm/rec/avg = unique identifier for site_date_transect; imm is immediate sampling date after storm, rec is the sampling date where total abundance matched longterm post storm baseline, avg are the post recovery dates creating the post storm baseline (these abbreviations follow for the next few variables)
UID.imm/rec/avg = unique identifier for site_date
abun.imm/rec/avg = total abundance measured in sampling relative units
div.imm/rec/avg = Shannon diversity within sample
rich.imm/rec/avg = richness (number of taxa) within sample
nms1.imm/rec/avg = nonmetric multidimensional scaling axis 1 to assess species composition changes
nsm2.imm/rec/avg = onmetric multidimensional scaling axis 2 to assess species composition changes
LRR.abun =log-response ratio measuring change in total abundance
LRR.div = log-response ratio measuring change in shannon diversity
LRR.rich = log-response ratio measuring change in taxa richness
Missing data code: NA
Methods
Please see the associated manuscript for full methods.