Effects of water temperature on freshwater macroinvertebrates: a systematic review

Water temperature is one of the main abiotic factors affecting the structure and functioning of aquatic ecosystems and its alteration can have important effects on biological communities. Macroinvertebrates are excellent bio-indicators and have been used for decades to assess the status of aquatic ecosystems as a result of environmental stresses; however, their responses to temperature are poorly documented and have not been systematically evaluated. <br> The database collects 223 publications (Research article and Reviewers) focusing on freshwater macroinvertebrates and temperature conditions published between 1970 and 2020 and stored in the ISI <em>Web of Science</em> (WoS) database. We used the following search string: Title=((“temperature”) AND (“macroinvertebrates”) AND (“biotic response”) NOT (“other”)), where: “temperature” includes: temperature* OR thermal OR warm* OR heat OR climate change OR thermic; “macroinvertebrates” include: invertebrat* OR macroinvertebrat* OR (aquatic AND insect*) OR benthos OR benthic OR Plecoptera OR Ephemeroptera OR Trichoptera OR (aquatic AND Coleoptera) OR (aquatic AND Diptera) OR mayfl* OR stonefl* OR caddisfl* OR (aquatic AND fly) OR (aquatic AND beetl*) OR chironomid* OR freshwater biota OR Odonata OR damselfl* OR neuropteran* OR Neuroptera OR Megaloptera OR megalopteran* OR dragonfl* OR (aquatic AND Heteroptera) OR (aquatic AND Hemiptera*) OR midg*; “biotic response” includes: stress* OR variation* OR dynamic* OR dietary OR food OR effect OR nich* OR phenology OR (life AND cycle) OR trait* OR growth OR reproduction OR mortality OR diseas* OR behaviour* OR performance OR dimension* OR size OR fitness OR success OR voltinism OR flexibility OR emergence OR (egg AND development) OR richness OR composition OR drift OR migration OR spatial OR pattern* OR gene* OR feeding OR predation; and “other” includes: fish* OR marine OR sea* OR ocean* OR coast* OR plankton OR brackish OR meiofauna OR oyster OR terrestrial OR soil OR coral OR foraminifer* OR alga OR diatom*. and then we selected the relevant publications examining the abstracts and retaing only papers related to freshwater macroinvertebrates and where the temperature was the main focus. <br> For each research article (<em>N=218</em>) in the database we recorded information including: -the ecosystem considered (Lotic ecosystems: river, channel, spring; Lentic ecosystems: lake, pond and Laboratory) -Type of study (experimental or theoretical) -Continent (Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Europe, Oceania, North America, Central America, South America) -Koppen Climatic regions ( Tropical, arid, temperate, cold, polar) -Spatial scale (Site-specific, catchment, regional, ecoregion, continental, global) -Temporal scale (Decades (&lt;100 years), years (&lt;10 years), months (&lt;1 year), days (&lt;1 month), punctual) -Survey frequency (Annual, seasonal, monthly, weekly, daily, hourly, subhourly, punctual) -Level of investigation (Order, family, genus, species) -Ecological unit (Community, population, gene) -Organism (tacxonomic order) -Temperature conditions (Laboratory: high temperature, temperature variation, temperature range; Field: climate warming, temperature regime, constant temperature regime) -Other stress (Predation, pollution, photoperiod, oxygen availability, nutrient concentration, humidity, habitat, food availability, flow, other) <br> -Author -Title -Year of Publication <br> For each category multiple selections were possible for a single paper, i.e. if different temperature conditions were investigated by a single publication. <br> <br>