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Identifying environmental drivers of benthic diatom diversity: the case of Mediterranean mountain ponds.

ABSTRACT: This study aims at elucidating the environmental factors controlling benthic diatom diversity and uniqueness in Mediterranean mountain ponds. Samples of periphytic diatoms were collected in 45 ponds in Andalusia, south of Spain, and analysed by standard methods. Data analysis reveals that diatom diversity is mainly controlled by elevation and hydroperiod. Contrary to the usual findings in the literature, the highest scores on Shannon's diversity index were found in high-elevation temporary ponds, but this effect is hidden by lake clustering in the analysed dataset. Significant distance-decay similarity (DDS) trends were detected in the analysis of floristic composition among the samples, stressing the importance of spatial factors that may override the effect of other abiotic factors. These findings highlight the role of isolation and dispersal limitation in the configuration of the biogeographical patterns of benthic diatoms.

SUBMITTER: Blanco S

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7100592 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Identifying environmental drivers of benthic diatom diversity: the case of Mediterranean mountain ponds.

Blanco Saúl S Olenici Adriana A Ortega Fernando F Jiménez-Gómez Francisco F Guerrero Francisco F

PeerJ 20200324

This study aims at elucidating the environmental factors controlling benthic diatom diversity and uniqueness in Mediterranean mountain ponds. Samples of periphytic diatoms were collected in 45 ponds in Andalusia, south of Spain, and analysed by standard methods. Data analysis reveals that diatom diversity is mainly controlled by elevation and hydroperiod. Contrary to the usual findings in the literature, the highest scores on Shannon's diversity index were found in high-elevation temporary ponds ...[more]

PMID: 32231886

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Project description:IntroductionFunctional trait-based approaches are extensively applied to the study of mechanisms governing community assembly along environmental gradients. These approaches have been classically based on studying differences in mean values among species, but there is increasing recognition that alternative metrics of trait distributions should be considered to decipher the mechanisms determining community assembly and species coexistence. Under this framework, the main aim of this study is to unravel the effects of environmental conditions as drivers of plant community assembly in sub-Mediterranean ecotones.MethodsWe set 60 plots in six plant communities of a sub-Mediterranean forest in Central Spain, and measured key above- and belowground functional traits in 411 individuals belonging to 19 species, along with abiotic variables. We calculated community-weighted mean (CWM), skewness (CWS) and kurtosis (CWK) of three plant dimensions, and used maximum likelihood techniques to analyze how variation in these functional community traits was driven by abiotic factors. Additionally, we estimated the relative contribution of intraspecific trait variability and species turnover to variation in CWM.Results and discussionThe first three axes of variation of the principal component analyses were related to three main plant ecological dimensions: Leaf Economics Spectrum, Root Economics Spectrum and plant hydraulic architecture, respectively. Type of community was the most important factor determining differences in the functional structure among communities, as compared to the role of abiotic variables. We found strong differences among communities in their CWMs in line with their biogeographic origin (Eurosiberian vs Mediterranean), while differences in CWS and CWK indicate different trends in the functional structure among communities and the coexistence of different functional strategies, respectively. Moreover, changes in functional composition were primarily due to intraspecific variability.ConclusionWe observed a high number of strategies in the forest with the different communities spreading along the acquisitive-conservative axis of resource-use, partly matching their Eurosiberian-Mediterranean nature, respectively. Intraspecific trait variability, rather than species turnover, stood as the most relevant factor when analyzing functional changes and assembly patterns among communities. Altogether, our data support the notion that ecotones are ecosystems where relatively minor environmental shifts may result in changes in plant and functional composition.

Dataset Information

Identifying environmental drivers of benthic diatom diversity: the case of Mediterranean mountain ponds.

Publications

Identifying environmental drivers of benthic diatom diversity: the case of Mediterranean mountain ponds.

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