Home > Articles > Published articles > Environmental factors prevail over dispersal constraints indetermining the distribution and assembly of Trichopteraspecies in mountain lakes |
Date: | 2015 |
Abstract: | Aiming to elucidate whether large-scale dispersal factors or environmental species sorting prevail in determining patterns of Trichoptera species composition in mountain lakes, we analyzed the distribution and assembly of the most common Trichoptera (Plectrocnemia laetabilis, Polycentropus flavomaculatus, Drusus rectus, Annitella pyrenaea, and Mystacides azurea) in the mountain lakes of the Pyrenees (Spain, France, Andorra) based on a survey of 82 lakes covering the geographical and environmental extremes of the lake district. Spatial autocorrelation in species composition was determined using Moran's eigenvector maps (MEM). Redundancy analysis (RDA) was applied to explore the influence of MEM variables and in-lake, and catchment environmental variables on Trichoptera assemblages. Variance partitioning analysis (partial RDA) revealed the fraction of species composition variation that could be attributed uniquely to either environmental variability or MEM variables. Finally, the distribution of individual species was analyzed in relation to specific environmental factors using binomial generalized linear models (GLM). Trichoptera assemblages showed spatial structure. However, the most relevant environmental variables in the RDA (i. e. , temperature and woody vegetation in-lake catchments) were also related with spatial variables (i. e. , altitude and longitude). Partial RDA revealed that the fraction of variation in species composition that was uniquely explained by environmental variability was larger than that uniquely explained by MEM variables. GLM results showed that the distribution of species with longitudinal bias is related to specific environmental factors with geographical trend. The environmental dependence found agrees with the particular traits of each species. We conclude that Trichoptera species distribution and composition in the lakes of the Pyrenees are governed predominantly by local environmental factors, rather than by dispersal constraints. For boreal lakes, with similar environmental conditions, a strong role of dispersal capacity has been suggested. Further investigation should address the role of spatial scaling, namely absolute geographical distances constraining dispersal and steepness of environmental gradients at short distances. |
Grants: | European Commission EVK1-CT-1999-00032 European Commission 505539 European Commission LIFE13-NAT-ES-001210 Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad CSD2007-00067 Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad CGL2013-45348-P Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca 2014/SGR-1249 |
Note: | Altres ajuts: project Invasive fish(427/2011), the Biodiversity Conservation Plan from ENDESA S.A. (6900014499) |
Rights: | Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original. |
Language: | Anglès |
Document: | Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada |
Subject: | Alpine lakes ; Altitudinal gradient ; Macroinvertebrates ; Niche segregation ; Spatial autocorrelation ; Spatial scale |
Published in: | Ecology and evolution, Vol. 15, issue 13 (July 2015) , p. 2518-2532, ISSN 2045-7758 |
Article 15 p, 1.4 MB |
Material addicional 12 p, 327.9 KB |