Macroinvertebrate indicators of ecological status in Mediterranean temporary stream types of the Balearic Islands

In the last years the Water Framework Directive (WFD) has encouraged the development of classification systems to assess the ecological status in permanent rivers and streams, but in temporary streams development has been scarce. Here, we constructed an Invertebrate Multimetric index (INVMIB) to assess the ecological status of temporary streams in Mediterranean Islands based on benthic invertebrates following the WFD guidance. We studied 60 temporary streams in different seasons (n = 270 samples), corresponding to three different stream types that were a priori established using topographical and valley information: lowland, canyon and mountain streams. We collected invertebrates with a multihabitat-based macroinvertebrate sampling standardised for a sampling area of 2.5 m2, and stream water to analyse most relevant water chemistry variables. The analyses of benthic macroinvertebrate assemblages confirmed our stream typology (ANOSIM, R = 0.363, p < 0.001). The reference community of lowland streams was defined by taxa belonging to the order Diptera, the gastropod Ancylus fluviatilis, and several beetles and EPT taxa. Canyons showed a high diversity strongly dominated by dipterans and aquatic mites together with mayflies. Finally, the amphipod Echinogammarus sicilianus-monomerus, many dipterans of the Chironomidae family, together with beetles, mayflies, stoneflies and caddisflies were highly represented in the reference communities from mountain streams. The developed INVMIBs consisted of a combination of individual metrics that included diversity, tolerance/sensitivity and composition measures. The metrics and developed type-specific multimetric indices responded significantly to the gradients of pressures obtained from PCAs (i.e., general and organic degradation), as an integrated response to the physico-chemical variables, hydromorphological parameters and land uses. Indeed, the classification system obtained with the INVMIBs reflected the ecological quality of temporary streams of the Balearic Islands. The multimetric indices are considered a valid and accurate tool for the assessment of temporary Mediterranean streams, being currently used by the water authorities of the Balearic Islands.