A comparative analysis reveals weak relationships between ecological factors and beta diversity of stream insect metacommunities at two spatial levels.

HEINO J, MELO A., BINI LM, ALTERMATT F, AL-SHAMI SA, ANGELER DG, BONADA N, BRAND C, CALLISTO M, COTTENIE K, DANGLES O, DUDGEON D, ENCALADA S, GÖTHE E, GRÖNROOS M, HAMADA N, JACOBSEN D, LANDEIRO VL, LIGEIRO R, MARTINS RT, ; MISERENDINO MARIA LAURA; CHE SALMAH MD RAWI, MARCIEL E. RODRIGUES, FABIO DE OLIVEIRA ROQUE, LEONARD SANDIN, DENES SCHMERA, LUCIANO F. SGARBI, JOHN SIMAIKA, TADEU SIQUEIRA, ROSS THOMPSON & COLIN R. TOWNSEND

Ecology and Evolution

Wiley

Lugar: Londres; Año: 2015

Recent studies have focused strongly on measuring and modeling spatial variation in assemblage composition (i.e. beta diversity) at various scales. We assembled a large dataset on stream insect metacommunities to examine beta diversity. First, we assessed whether beta diversity increases with spatial extent and environmental heterogeneity across multiple drainage basins throughout the world. We quantified how well variability in beta diversity was predicted by latitude, altitudinal range and dataset properties (e.g. number of sites and percentage of presences). Second, we assessed the relative roles of environmental and spatial factors in driving variation in assemblage composition within each drainage basin. Our results indicate that dataset properties were more important predictors of beta diversity than ecological and geographical factors across the drainage basins. In the within-drainage basin analyses, environmental factors were poor predictors of assemblage composition. We suggest that the high stochasticity of streams contributes to weak predictability of beta diversity.