Identifying hotsports of Exposed Riverine Sediments (ERS) biodiversity, can physical habitat dynamics predict beetle communities?

Abstract

Flooding and inundation is an integral process driving the physical conditions of ERS, which in turn influences the specialist invertebrate fauna that live in these habitats. This piece of research aimed to create a small scale hydrological model for an area of ERS on the River Severn, Wales, UK which permits the quantification of the frequency and extent of inundation throughout a two year period. The influence of partial and complete inundation on invertebrate abundance, species diversity and assemblage similarity was also be examined. The fieldwork was conducted on ERS on the River Severn during May-September 2007 and May-September 2008. The results presented here focus on the hydrological model created using data collected via the DGPS. The biological implications of the hydrological model form chapters in the thesis of which this is a part.