A multi-scale comparison of trait linkages to environmental and spatial variables in fish communities across a large freshwater lake |
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Authors: | Strecker Angela L Casselman John M Fortin Marie-Josée Jackson Donald A Ridgway Mark S Abrams Peter A Shuter Brian J |
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Institution: | (1) Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, M5S 3G5, Canada;(2) Department of Biology, Queen’s University, Kingston, ON, K7L 3N6, Canada;(3) Aquatic Research and Development Section, Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, Peterborough, ON, K9J 7B8, Canada;(4) Present address: School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98105, USA |
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Abstract: | Species present in communities are affected by the prevailing environmental conditions, and the traits that these species
display may be sensitive indicators of community responses to environmental change. However, interpretation of community responses
may be confounded by environmental variation at different spatial scales. Using a hierarchical approach, we assessed the spatial
and temporal variation of traits in coastal fish communities in Lake Huron over a 5-year time period (2001–2005) in response
to biotic and abiotic environmental factors. The association of environmental and spatial variables with trophic, life-history,
and thermal traits at two spatial scales (regional basin-scale, local site-scale) was quantified using multivariate statistics
and variation partitioning. We defined these two scales (regional, local) on which to measure variation and then applied this
measurement framework identically in all 5 study years. With this framework, we found that there was no change in the spatial
scales of fish community traits over the course of the study, although there were small inter-annual shifts in the importance
of regional basin- and local site-scale variables in determining community trait composition (e.g., life-history, trophic,
and thermal). The overriding effects of regional-scale variables may be related to inter-annual variation in average summer
temperature. Additionally, drivers of fish community traits were highly variable among study years, with some years dominated
by environmental variation and others dominated by spatially structured variation. The influence of spatial factors on trait
composition was dynamic, which suggests that spatial patterns in fish communities over large landscapes are transient. Air
temperature and vegetation were significant variables in most years, underscoring the importance of future climate change
and shoreline development as drivers of fish community structure. Overall, a trait-based hierarchical framework may be a useful
conservation tool, as it highlights the multi-scaled interactive effect of variables over a large landscape. |
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