Loughborough University
Browse
Everall et al al 2015 EE - mayfly phenology.pdf (1.4 MB)

Detecting phenology change in the mayfly Ephemera danica: responses to spatial and temporal water temperature variations

Download (1.4 MB)
journal contribution
posted on 2015-06-03, 13:44 authored by Nicholas C. Everall, Matthew F. Johnson, Robert WilbyRobert Wilby, Cyril J. Bennett
1. Rising water temperatures under climate change are expected to affect the phenology of aquatic insects, including the mayfly Ephemera danica Müller which is widespread throughout Europe. 2. To assess temporal and spatial variability in mayfly emergence, E. danica were monitored at two thermally contrasting reaches in the River Dove, English Peak District over the period 2007-2013. Inter-annual variations in growing degree days (GDDs) were modelled for an upstream site with intermittent spring flow supplementing main channel flow (Beresford Dale) and downstream site dominated by near constant discharges of cool groundwater (Dovedale). 3. A strong association exists between the emergence cycle of E. danica and GDDs at each site. Beresford Dale accumulated on average 374 more GDDs than Dovedale. After warm summers E. danica emerged after only 1year in Beresford Dale but began to revert to a bi-annual cycle after the particularly wet/cool year of 2012. In Dovedale, E. danica maintained a 2-year cycle throughout the monitoring period in spite of the phenology changes observed 8km upstream. 4. Data from the present study suggest that habitats near cool groundwater may provide important refugia for populations of insects, potentially delaying permanent shifts in phenology under climate change. However, an ability to detect changes in the thermal triggers and phenological response may be hindered by conventional spot sampling protocols.

Funding

The authors wish to thank The Wild Trout Trust, Beresford Fishery, Derbyshire County Angling Club, Peak District National Park Authority and Staffordshire Wildlife Trust for part-funding this work.

History

School

  • Social Sciences

Department

  • Geography and Environment

Published in

Ecological Entomology

Volume

40

Issue

2

Pages

95 - 105

Citation

EVERALL, N.C. ... et al, 2015. Detecting phenology change in the mayfly Ephemera danica: responses to spatial and temporal water temperature variations. Ecological Entomology, 40 (2), pp.95-105.

Publisher

Wiley Publishing / © The Royal Entomological Society

Version

  • AM (Accepted Manuscript)

Publisher statement

This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Publication date

2015

Notes

This is the peer reviewed version of the article, which has been published in final form at http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/een.12164. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving.

ISSN

0307-6946

eISSN

1365-2311

Language

  • en