TY - JOUR
T1 - Understanding salt-tolerance and biota-stressor interactions in freshwater invertebrate communities
AU - Kefford, Ben J.
AU - Bray, Jon P.
AU - Nichols, Susan J.
AU - Reich, Jollene
AU - Mac Nally, Ralph
AU - O'Reilly-Nugent, Andrew
AU - Kon Kam King, Guillaume
AU - Thompson, Ross
N1 - Funding Information:
The experiment reported in Bray et al. (2019) and the new data reported here were funded by Australian Research Council Linkage Projects LP130100100 (awarded to B. J. Kefford and others) and LP160100093 (awarded to B. J. Kefford, S. J. Nichols, R. Mac Nally, Bruce Chessman, Ary Hoffmann, Leon Metzeling, Peter Goonan, Michael Warne and Sarit Kaserzon).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 CSIRO.
PY - 2021/12
Y1 - 2021/12
N2 - Salinity is increasing in many naturally fresh waters because of human activities, and there are concerns about the ecological effects of these increases. Salinity, as with any stressor, can affect organisms both directly and indirectly. In a previous study (Bray et al. 2019), we evaluated the relative importance of direct and indirect effects of increased salinity on stream invertebrates.Chessman (2021)criticised that study, claiming that the biotic treatments were confounded and did not directly test the hypotheses.Chessman (2021)also conducted a reanalysis of the data. We show through the analysis of new data that our biotic treatments were not confounded and that the conclusions made byChessman (2021)were probably a consequence of the low statistical power of his analysis. Consequently, we argue thatChessman's (2021)comments do not substantively alter the conclusions of our study, and we provide more evidence to support the conclusions of our previous publication. The study of biota-stressor interactions is increasingly relevant to a wide range of global ecosystems. There is a need to develop tractable experimental and survey designs that address these problems, and we identify further avenues for study of these complex issues.
AB - Salinity is increasing in many naturally fresh waters because of human activities, and there are concerns about the ecological effects of these increases. Salinity, as with any stressor, can affect organisms both directly and indirectly. In a previous study (Bray et al. 2019), we evaluated the relative importance of direct and indirect effects of increased salinity on stream invertebrates.Chessman (2021)criticised that study, claiming that the biotic treatments were confounded and did not directly test the hypotheses.Chessman (2021)also conducted a reanalysis of the data. We show through the analysis of new data that our biotic treatments were not confounded and that the conclusions made byChessman (2021)were probably a consequence of the low statistical power of his analysis. Consequently, we argue thatChessman's (2021)comments do not substantively alter the conclusions of our study, and we provide more evidence to support the conclusions of our previous publication. The study of biota-stressor interactions is increasingly relevant to a wide range of global ecosystems. There is a need to develop tractable experimental and survey designs that address these problems, and we identify further avenues for study of these complex issues.
KW - biotic interactions
KW - experimental design
KW - major ions
KW - mesocosm
KW - stream invertebrates
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85117825650&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1071/MF21164
DO - 10.1071/MF21164
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85117825650
SN - 1323-1650
VL - 73
SP - 140
EP - 146
JO - Marine and Freshwater Research
JF - Marine and Freshwater Research
IS - 1
ER -
