Riparian forests can mitigate warming and ecological degradation of agricultural headwater streams

Riparian forests are commonly advocated as a key management option to mitigate the effects of agriculture on headwater stream biodiversity and ecosystem functions. However, benefits riparian might be reduced by uninterrupted catchment-scale pollution. We studied land use multiple ecological endpoints in streams an agricultural landscape. habitat characteristics, water temperature algal accrual, macrophyte, benthic macroinvertebrate fish communities 11 paired forested open reaches that differed their extent forest cover but had similar quality. Hydromorphological quality was higher than reaches. strong effect summer regime, with maximum mean temperatures variation substantially lower Macrophyte between The abundance bryophytes difference only marginally significant, whereas graminoids were significantly more abundant Within-stream dissimilarity community structure related reach pairs. relative DNA sequence pollution-sensitive Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, Trichoptera species tended Finally, densities not different reaches, although This unequivocal evidence for suggests can partly adverse impacts diffuse pollution biota. suggest could also harmful functions predicted frequent high temperatures.