A comparative analysis reveals weak relationships between ecological factors and beta diversity of stream insect metacommunities at two spatial levels |
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| Authors: | Florian Altermatt Salman A Al‐Shami David G Angeler Núria Bonada Cecilia Brand Marcos Callisto Karl Cottenie Olivier Dangles David Dudgeon Andrea Encalada Emma Göthe Mira Grönroos Neusa Hamada Dean Jacobsen Victor L Landeiro Raphael Ligeiro Renato T Martins María Laura Miserendino Che Salmah Md Rawi Marciel E Rodrigues Fabio de Oliveira Roque Leonard Sandin Denes Schmera Luciano F Sgarbi John P Simaika Tadeu Siqueira Ross M Thompson Colin R Townsend |
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| Institution: | 1. Department of Aquatic Ecology, Eawag: Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, Dübendorf, Switzerland;2. Institute of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, Zürich, Switzerland;3. School of Biological Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia;4. Biology Department, Faculty of Science, University of Tabuk, Tabuk, Saudi Arabia;5. Department of Aquatic Sciences and Assessment, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden;6. Departament d'Ecologia, Grup de Recerca Freshwater Ecology and Management (FEM), Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain;7. LIESA‐CONICET‐Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia SJB, Chubut, Argentina;8. Departamento de Biologia Geral, Instituto de Biologia Geral, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil;9. Department of Integrative Biology, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada;10. Laboratory of Entomology, School of Biological Sciences, Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador, Quito, Ecuador;11. IRD, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, Laboratoire Evolution, Génomes et Spéciation, Gif‐sur‐Yvette, France;12. School of Biological Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China;13. Laboratorio de Ecología Acuática Colegio de Ciencias Biológicas y Ambientales Universidad San Francisco de Quito, Quito, Ecuador;14. Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University, Silkeborg, Denmark;15. Finnish Environment Institute, Natural Environment Centre, Biodiversity, Oulu, Finland;16. Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amaz?nia, Coordena??o de Biodiversidade, Manaus, AM, Brazil;17. Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark;18. Departamento de Botanica e Ecologia, Universidade Federal do Mato Grosso, Cuiabá, Brazil;19. Departamento de Ciências Biológicas e da Saúde, Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso do Sul, Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil;20. Section 21. of Conservation Biology, Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland;22. Balaton Limnological Institute, Centre for Ecological Research, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Tihany, Hungary;23. Departamento de Ecologia, Universidade Federal de Goiás, Goiania, GO, Brazil;24. Department of Conservation Ecology and Entomology, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, South Africa;25. Instituto de Biociências, UNESP ‐ Universidade Estadual Paulista, Rio Claro, S?o Paulo, Brazil;26. Institute for Applied Ecology, University of Canberra, Canberra, ACT, Australia;27. Department of Zoology, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand |
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| Abstract: | The hypotheses that beta diversity should increase with decreasing latitude and increase with spatial extent of a region have rarely been tested based on a comparative analysis of multiple datasets, and no such study has focused on stream insects. We first assessed how well variability in beta diversity of stream insect metacommunities is predicted by insect group, latitude, spatial extent, altitudinal range, and dataset properties across multiple drainage basins throughout the world. Second, we assessed the relative roles of environmental and spatial factors in driving variation in assemblage composition within each drainage basin. Our analyses were based on a dataset of 95 stream insect metacommunities from 31 drainage basins distributed around the world. We used dissimilarity‐based indices to quantify beta diversity for each metacommunity and, subsequently, regressed beta diversity on insect group, latitude, spatial extent, altitudinal range, and dataset properties (e.g., number of sites and percentage of presences). Within each metacommunity, we used a combination of spatial eigenfunction analyses and partial redundancy analysis to partition variation in assemblage structure into environmental, shared, spatial, and unexplained fractions. We found that dataset properties were more important predictors of beta diversity than ecological and geographical factors across multiple drainage basins. In the within‐basin analyses, environmental and spatial variables were generally poor predictors of variation in assemblage composition. Our results revealed deviation from general biodiversity patterns because beta diversity did not show the expected decreasing trend with latitude. Our results also call for reconsideration of just how predictable stream assemblages are along ecological gradients, with implications for environmental assessment and conservation decisions. Our findings may also be applicable to other dynamic systems where predictability is low. |
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| Keywords: | Altitude range comparative analysis environmental filtering insects latitude spatial extent variance partitioning |
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