How Do Sampling Methods Affect the Body Size–Abundance Relationships of Benthic Macroinvertebrates in Freshwater Ecosystems? A Comparative Analysis

• Published in: Water (Basel) Vol. 15; no. 3; p. 386
• Main Authors: Pinna, Maurizio, Gjoni, Vojsava, Bozzeda, Fabio, Marini, Gabriele, Cristiano, Giovanni, Di Sabatino, Antonio
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 01.02.2023
• Subjects: Abundance; Analysis; Apennine river ecosystems; Aquatic ecosystems; benthic macroinvertebrates; Biotic factors; Body size; body size–abundance relationships; Comparative analysis; Creeks & streams; Datasets; Ecology; Ecosystem components; Fresh water; Freshwater ecosystems; Home range; Invertebrates; Laboratories; Leaf-bags and Surber-net; Leaves; Macroinvertebrates; Metabolic rate; Metabolism; Methods; Sampling; Sampling methods; Social aspects; Italy
• ISSN: 2073-4441; 2073-4441
• DOI: 10.3390/w15030386

Body size is a key trait of species, populations, and organisms; it relates to abundance, home range, metabolic rates, and stressors. As reported by Damuth’s law, the relationship between body size and abundance is negative with a slope value of −0.75. In aquatic ecosystems, particularly for benthic macroinvertebrates, the slope value deviates from the expected value of −0.75. This variation may depend on abiotic and biotic factors as well as methods that are used to sample benthic macroinvertebrates. “Leaf-bags” and “Surber-net” are the most used methods and they provide different data about the body size structures and abundance of the sampled benthic macroinvertebrates. Here, we used the slope of the body size–abundance relationships to compare the benthic macroinvertebrate assemblages sampled with two sampling methods (Leaf-bags and Surber-net). We found that Leaf-bags sampled a greater number of smaller taxa than Surber-net, which collected individuals of larger sizes. In our study, differences in the benthic macroinvertebrate body size structures collected with these two sampling methods were evident even if the experiment was performed at a limited spatio–temporal scale. Therefore, Leaf-bags and Surber-net should be used as complementary rather than alternative techniques since they sample integrated information from the benthic macroinvertebrate communities.