Increases in salinity can severely affect freshwater ecosystems, and research on the salt tolerances of freshwater species, and factors that modify tolerance, can improve our understanding and prediction of the effects of salinity. In order to test the hypothesis that salt-tolerant freshwater invertebrates can alter the salinity responses of salt-sensitive freshwater invertebrates, publicly available data from a recent study of artificial mesocosms that claimed to confirm this hypothesis were analysed in the present study. No supporting evidence was found for the hypothesis, with apparent salinity responses of salt-sensitive invertebrates varying no more with greater or lesser exposure to salt-tolerant invertebrates than expected merely by chance. The original findings were apparently misguided through unrecognised confounding of the experimental design, inadequate statistical hypothesis testing and accepting ostensible effects without considering their biological and ecological plausibility.

中文翻译：

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不支持所谓的耐盐溪流无脊椎动物对盐敏感溪流无脊椎动物的盐度响应的影响

盐度的增加会严重影响淡水生态系统，对淡水物种的耐盐性和改变耐盐性的因素的研究可以提高我们对盐度影响的理解和预测。为了检验耐盐淡水无脊椎动物可以改变盐敏感淡水无脊椎动物的盐度响应的假设，本研究分析了最近一项声称证实这一假设的人工中层宇宙研究的公开数据。没有找到支持该假设的证据，盐敏感无脊椎动物的表观盐度反应不会随着与耐盐无脊椎动物的接触程度高于或低于预期而发生更大的变化。