Macrozoobenthos survey within the project ERANET LAC Grant GLOBIOS - Global Observatory Network for Freshwater Biodiversity in High Mountain Streams

The fauna of high alpine streams is influenced by a high number of water discharges for energy production in addition to various interventions by tourism and alpine pasture management. Coldstenothermal and endemic alpine species are particularly vulnerable to climate-change phenomena. This project investigates and documents the biodiversity of macro-invertebrate communities at different altitudes and their ecology in order to predict long-term trends of future developments. The present project combines traditional morphological species identification with modern molecular methods and has the potential to fundamentally change biodiversity analyses of high alpine streams and to raise new perspectives. In addition, uninfluenced reference communities of alpine streams <10km² catchment area size will be investigated. Their knowledge is of high value for the further development of assessment methods according to the Water Framework Directive (WFD) and their implementation in alpine regions of Austria for future projects. In the course of the investigation, macrozoobenthos samples will be taken from 20 water bodies in the Austrian Alps, at 3 investigation sites each at different altitudes using the WFD-compliant Multi-Habitat Sampling (MHS) method. Sampling is planned for early autumn (September/October) 2020. For all samples, the parameters water depth and flow velocity (v40) will be measured. The respective water widths and depths will also be measured for each investigation site. Additionally, temperature loggers will be installed in the respective water bodies. Furthermore, characteristic alpine elements, such as adult Trichoptera, Plecoptera and Chironomidae species from the riparian zones and the accompanying vegetation will be collected with nets at the investigation sites and a light trap will be installed as close as possible to the banks at one of the three sites of each stream in order to further develop molecular reference databases. For the determination of chlorophyll-a, nine algal biomass samples will be taken from each study site. Molecular sample preparation is carried out by specialists from the Senckenberg Research Institute.