Should phylogenetic and functional diversity metrics compose macroinvertebrate multimetric indices for stream biomonitoring?

Abstract

The idea behind multimetric indices is to integrate information from several metrics to provide a general classification of water bodies without losing the particularities of each individual metric. Historically, multimetric indices use information on richness, taxon sensitivity, and taxonomic diversity. Recently, functional and phylogenetic diversity proved to capture different dimensions of biodiversity. Here we asked if these new metrics provide complementary information to classical metrics and should be included in multimetric indices. We used an index construction protocol based on statistical filters to test candidate metrics for range, sensitivity, and redundancy. We used macroinvertebrate data from streams located in a Savanna region of Brazil, encompassing a gradient of impact, to test our ideas. Of 41 candidate metrics, functional dispersion of functional diversity, mean nearest neighbor distance of phylogenetic diversity, and four classical metrics passed the filter selection composing the final multimetric index. Our results indicated that functional and phylogenetic diversity metrics indeed responded to environmental impact and complemented the information provided by classical metrics. We suggest that future indices should consider including new metrics of functional and phylogenetic diversity to properly monitor multiple dimensions of biodiversity.