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Fine-Scale Taxonomic and Functional Diversity Patterns Inform Within-Site Sampling Strategies for Benthic Macroinvertebrates in an Alpine Stream

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Fine-Scale Taxonomic and Functional Diversity Patterns Inform Within-Site Sampling Strategies for Benthic Macroinvertebrates in an Alpine Stream

Zhen Tian 1,2,3,4 Xianfu Li 1,3,4 Lu Tan 2 Lu Yang 1,3,4 Xiaoling Deng 5,6 Ronglong Yang 1,3,4 Qinghua Cai 2 Shuoran Liu 1,3,4,* Wen Xiao 1,3,4,*

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1
Institute of Eastern-Himalaya Biodiversity Research, Dali University, Dali 671003, China
2
Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430072, China
3
Collaborative Innovation Center for Biodiversity and Conservation in the Three Parallel Rivers Region of China, Dali 671003, China
4
The Provincial Innovation Team of Biodiversity Conservation and Utility of the Three Parallel Rivers Region, Dali University, Dali 671003, China
5
State Key Laboratory of Herbage Improvement and Grassland Agro-Ecosystems, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China
6
College of Ecology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China
*
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Received: 01 June 2026 Revised: 07 July 2026 Accepted: 27 July 2026 Published: 31 July 2026

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© 2026 The authors. This is an open access article under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

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J. Watershed Ecol. 2026, 1(2), 10013; DOI: 10.70322/jwe.2026.10013
ABSTRACT: Fine-scale habitat heterogeneity can generate marked short-distance variation in alpine-stream benthic macroinvertebrate assemblages, yet routine surveys often characterize a site using five Surber-net replicates collected within an approximately 100 m reach. We analyzed 99 quantitative samples collected at 10 m intervals along a 1 km reach of Qingbixi Stream on Cangshan Mountain, Dali, Yunnan, China, to relate taxonomic and functional diversity patterns to within-site sampling design. The samples contained 69 taxa and 15,034 individuals. Across 20 consecutive 50 m sections, turnover accounted for 70.9% of mean total pairwise taxonomic beta diversity, whereas nestedness accounted for 96.3% of mean total functional trait-state beta diversity. Taxonomic dissimilarity increased weakly but significantly with longitudinal distance. In ten simulated nominal 100 m sampling units, five spatial replicates detected an average of 82.9% of the locally observed taxon pool; completeness increased to 87.4% with six replicates and 94.6% with eight. These results support five replicates as a practical baseline for routine community characterization, while more intensive or microhabitat-stratified sampling is preferable when near-complete taxon detection or fine-scale beta-diversity assessment is required.
Keywords: Alpine stream; Benthic macroinvertebrates; Beta diversity; Functional diversity;
Sampling design
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