| dc.description.abstract | The intensification of agriculture and forestry the last decades have caused extensive degradation in freshwater ecosystems, primarily through morphological, physical, and chemical impacts stemming from practices like monocultural farming and clear-cutting in forestry. The riparian ecotones regulate the transmission of materials and energy between aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. The aim of this study was to: 1) Identify environmental factors that best explain the in-stream habitat and the riparian condition in the streams included in this study, and 2) Identify the effect of these environmental factors on the abundance and diversity of aquatic insects within the same streams. Aquatic insects were collected with emergence traps at 15 different sampling sites during June, July, and at the beginning of August 2023 in Haldenvassdraget, South-East Norway. The amount of maturing riparian vegetation and woody components in-stream best explained the condition of riparian ecotones. However, the effects of these were two-fold, as the abundance of aquatic insects increased but the diversity decreased with increasing amounts of maturing vegetation and woody components. From a management perspective, these results highlight the importance of environmental factors, and the consideration of how they influence each other, along with the effect they have on living organisms within habitats. | |
