Effects of sediment replenishment on riverbed environments and macroinvertebrate assemblages downstream of a dam

Abstract

Riverbeds downstream of dams are starved of sediment, impacting habitat structure and ecological function. Despite the implementation of sediment management techniques, there has been no evaluation of their conservational effectiveness; the impacts on high trophic level organisms remain unknown. This study examined the effects of sediment replenishment on riverbeds and macroinvertebrates in a dammed river before and after sediment replenishment. We evaluated the particle sizes of replenished sediments and the case material of a case-bearing caddisfly. We observed significant changes in macroinvertebrate assemblages before and after sediment replenishment, and between the upstream and tributary references and downstream of the dam. The percentages of Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, and Trichoptera, and the number of inorganic case-bearing caddisflies downstream of the dam following sediment replenishment, were significantly higher than the upstream and tributary reference sites. The particle size of case materials used by case-bearing caddisfly corresponded to the size of the replenished sediment. Dissimilarity results after replenishment showed that assemblages downstream of the dam differed from upstream sites, although they were similar to the tributary sites. The dissimilarity between the tributary and downstream of the dam was the same as that between the upstream and tributary. Sediment replenishment was observed to reduce the harmful effects of the dam, and partly restore benefits such as increasing species diversity and altering community assemblages, similar to the effects of tributary inflows.