Studying interactions among anthropogenic stressors in freshwater ecosystems: A systematic review of 2396 multiple-stressor experiments.

Understanding the interactions among anthropogenic stressors is critical for effective conservation and management of ecosystems. Freshwater scientists have invested considerable resources in conducting factorial experiments to disentangle stressor interactions by testing their individual and combined effects. However, the diversity of stressors and systems studied has hindered previous syntheses of this body of research.

Effects of flow reduction and artificial light at night (ALAN) on litter decomposition and invertebrate communities in streams: A flume experiment.

River ecosystems are heavily impacted by multiple stressors, where effects can cascade downstream of point sources. However, a spatial approach to assess the effects of multiple stressors is missing. We assessed the local and downstream effects on litter decomposition, and associated invertebrate communities of two stressors: flow reduction and artificial light at night (ALAN).

Warming and imidacloprid pulses determine macroinvertebrate community dynamics in experimental streams.

Sustainable management of freshwater and pesticide use is essential for mitigating the impacts of intensive agriculture in the context of a changing climate. To better understand how climate change will affect the vulnerability of freshwater ecosystems to chemical pollutants, more empirical evidence is needed on the combined effects of climatic and chemical stressors in environmentally realistic conditions. Our experiment provides the first empirical evaluation of stream macroinvertebrate community dynamics in response to one of the world's most widely used insecticides, imidacloprid, and increased water temperature.

Impacts of multiple anthropogenic stressors on stream macroinvertebrate community composition and functional diversity.

Ensuring the provision of essential ecosystem services in systems affected by multiple stressors is a key challenge for theoretical and applied ecology. Trait-based approaches have increasingly been used in multiple-stressor research in freshwaters because they potentially provide a powerful method to explore the mechanisms underlying changes in populations and communities. Individual benthic macroinvertebrate traits associated with mobility, life history, morphology, and feeding habits are often used to determine how environmental drivers structure stream communities.

Fine sediment and flow velocity impact bacterial community and functional profile more than nutrient enrichment.

Freshwater ecosystems face many simultaneous pressures due to human activities. Consequently, there has been a rapid loss of freshwater biodiversity and an increase in biomonitoring programs. Our study assessed the potential of benthic stream bacterial communities as indicators of multiple-stressor impacts associated with urbanization and agricultural intensification.

Anthropogenic stressors affect fungal more than bacterial communities in decaying leaf litter: A stream mesocosm experiment.

Despite the progress made in environmental microbiology techniques and knowledge, the succession and functional changes of the microbial community under multiple stressors are still poorly understood. This is a substantial knowledge gap as microbial communities regulate the biogeochemistry of stream ecosystems. Our study assessed the structural and temporal changes in stream fungal and bacterial communities associated with decomposing leaf litter under a multiple-stressor scenario.