Implication of our findings for aquatic biodiversity conservation in the Cerrado Hotspot
Cerrado streams usually undergo seasonal flooding, and the variation in water flow usually is not drastic especially in headwater streams (Bispo et al. 2004, Bispo and Oliveira 2007). The results of our study draw attention to biodiversity conservation. Processes of land modification near streams is accelerating in the Cerrado region (Bowman 2016). The loss of riparian forest makes flooding events more frequent, especially in the rainy season. Cerrado is also targeted for construction of small to medium sized dams, which directly affects the hydrological dynamics of lotic systems. We detected that a reduced permanence of groups compared to natural conditions due to disturbance frequency, and there is a possibility of biodiversity losses.
Climate change is predicted to condense the rainy season into shorter periods of time at a regional scale, but with more intense precipitation events in the tropics (IPCC 2014, Fischer and Knutti 2015). Thus, on a broader temporal and spatial scale, we would have more accentuated and more frequent rains, which will directly affect the permanence of aquatic insects in headwater streams, especially those with less vegetation cover. Therefore, maintaining the riparian forest cover becomes key in maintaining the biodiversity of aquatic entomofauna (Dala‐Corte et al. 2020), as it prevents water runoff from reaching streams quickly, attenuating flow disturbances and losses of functional groups important to these aquatic insect communities.’