Habitat quality and biological community responses to innovative hydropower plant installations at transverse in-stream structures
Data files
Jan 18, 2024 version files 1.44 MB
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Knott_et_al._2024_Raw_data.xlsx
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README.md
Abstract
- Ecological assessments of the effects of hydropower plants (HPPs) are often limited to aspects of entrainment, mortality, injuries, and passage of fish, whereas the effects on riverine habitats and biological communities in proximity to these structures are hardly documented.
- In this study, aquatic communities comprising fish, macroinvertebrates, macrophytes, and periphyton as well as physical and hydromorphological parameters were investigated in upstream and downstream river sections at five transverse structures at different seasons before and after the installation of an innovative HPP.
- At all study sites, significant differences in the aquatic community composition between the assessed upstream and downstream sections were found after HPP construction, indicating distinct serial discontinuity.
- Raising the damming target at the sites Großweil and Au deteriorated the habitat conditions in the upstream area close to the weir and presumably influenced in particular the macroinvertebrate community, where a significant decrease in the density of rheophilic mayfly, stonefly, and caddisfly larvae was observed after HPP construction.
- Synthesis and applications: The installation of different types of innovative HPPs has not improved the habitat conditions for rheophilic species, contrary to the promises raised by the developers of these concepts. Conversely, retrofitting existing weirs accompanied by further damming even significantly increased the effects of serial discontinuity and deteriorated the habitat conditions for rheophilic species in upstream sections. As evident from the findings of this study, habitat and biological community effects resulting from serial discontinuity should become better integrated into ecological assessments of HPP developments.
README: Habitat quality and biological community responses to innovative hydropower plant installations at transverse in-stream structures
https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.x69p8czrh
The dataset comprises biotic (fish, macroinvertebrates, macrophytes, and periphyton) and abiotic data (physical and hydromorphological parameters) that were recorded in upstream and downstream river sections at five transverse structures at different seasons before and after the installation of an innovative hydropower plant.
Description of the data and file structure
The data are organised in cross tables, with the rows indicating the sampling sites and the sampling time and the columns indicating the taxa detected (biotic data) or the parameters measured (abiotic data). Column headers contain units for abiotic data.
Abbreviations for abiotic parameters:
- DO = dissolved oxygen
- OW = open water
- INT = interstitial zone
- T = water temperature
- EC = electric conductivity
- EH = redox potential
- CV = current velocity
- depth = water depth
- GSF = grain size fraction of the river bed
- DG = geometric mean particle diameter
- Δ = difference between values from open water samples and interstitial water