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Effects of water temperature on life history traits of selected South African Aquatic insects: implications for the ecological reserve
Includes bibliographical references.
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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Department of Biological Sciences
2014
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| _version_ | 1867613245763747840 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Ross-Gillespie, Vere |
| author2 | Dallas, Helen Fiona |
| author_browse | Dallas, Helen Fiona Ross-Gillespie, Vere |
| author_facet | Dallas, Helen Fiona Ross-Gillespie, Vere |
| author_sort | Ross-Gillespie, Vere |
| collection | Thesis |
| description | Includes bibliographical references. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/9540 |
| institution | University of Cape Town (South Africa) |
| language | eng |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:33:05.164Z |
| license_str | Not specified — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| publishDate | 2014 |
| publishDateRange | 2014 |
| publishDateSort | 2014 |
| publisher | Department of Biological Sciences |
| publisherStr | Department of Biological Sciences |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| spelling | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/9540 Effects of water temperature on life history traits of selected South African Aquatic insects: implications for the ecological reserve Ross-Gillespie, Vere Dallas, Helen Fiona Day, Jenny Picker, Mike Includes bibliographical references. Life-history studies have informed all areas of aquatic ecological research, whilst also providing information relevant for conservation and management of aquatic systems. Given the large research gap that has existed in this regard for Southern Hemisphere lotic systems, there has been an urgent need to gather such data if effective management policies are to be implemented regionally, especially in the face of ongoing development, anthropogenic impacts, and global climate change. Furthermore, there has been a growing awareness of the need to incorporate thermal guidelines into legislation regarding environmental flows and associated water management plans. In South Africa radical new legislation introduced in 1996 resulted in rivers and aquatic ecosystems being given a right to water of their own- essentially environmental flows, required to protect the aquatic ecosystems associated with the water resource, that are determined separately for all or part of any significant water resource. This water, including both the quantity and quality, is referred to as the "Ecological Reserve." Baseline information on the relationship between temperature and life-history patterns of aquatic insects is required to inform the incorporation of thermal guidelines in the Ecological Reserve determination process. Assuming such information can be gathered, a problem arises as to how the data can be interpreted and incorporated into management guidelines. For instance if representatives of widespread species occurring throughout a country are collected from a single location (say perhaps a single province in South Africa) and then analysed in terms of their thermal limits for growth – would these limits hold true for that same species where it occurs elsewhere? Intra-specific variability, cryptic species and broader phylogenetic constraints all influence the thermal limits of species and need to be considered when examining thermal influences on life-history patterns. This thesis aimed to test the overarching hypothesis that while the life-history traits of aquatic insects could be constrained to some degree by their evolutionary history, they would also be impacted by thermal and hydrological regimes, inducing a degree of plasticity in their life cycles. This hypothesis was tested by examining the key life-history traits of three representative taxa of aquatic insect, namely Lestagella penicillata (Ephemeroptera), Aphanicercella spp. (Plecoptera) and Chimarra ambulans (Trichoptera), and how they are driven by environmental and genetic factors in six rivers situated in the south-western Cape Province of South Africa. 2014-11-11T07:01:56Z 2014-11-11T07:01:56Z 2014 Doctoral Thesis Doctoral PhD http://hdl.handle.net/11427/9540 eng application/pdf Department of Biological Sciences Faculty of Science University of Cape Town |
| spellingShingle | Ross-Gillespie, Vere Effects of water temperature on life history traits of selected South African Aquatic insects: implications for the ecological reserve |
| thesis_degree_str | Doctoral |
| title | Effects of water temperature on life history traits of selected South African Aquatic insects: implications for the ecological reserve |
| title_full | Effects of water temperature on life history traits of selected South African Aquatic insects: implications for the ecological reserve |
| title_fullStr | Effects of water temperature on life history traits of selected South African Aquatic insects: implications for the ecological reserve |
| title_full_unstemmed | Effects of water temperature on life history traits of selected South African Aquatic insects: implications for the ecological reserve |
| title_short | Effects of water temperature on life history traits of selected South African Aquatic insects: implications for the ecological reserve |
| title_sort | effects of water temperature on life history traits of selected south african aquatic insects implications for the ecological reserve |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/9540 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT rossgillespievere effectsofwatertemperatureonlifehistorytraitsofselectedsouthafricanaquaticinsectsimplicationsfortheecologicalreserve |