Experimental evaluation of biodiversity response to dispersal barriers and patch primary producer biomass in Mediterranean streams

• Published in: Aquatic sciences 2021, Vol.83 (1), Article 1
• Main Authors: López-Rodríguez, Manuel Jesús, Paz Moreno, Isabel, Peralta-Maraver, Ignacio, Pérez-Martínez, Carmen, Tierno de Figueroa, José Manuel
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Biodiversity; Biomass; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Colonization; Community structure; Dispersal; Dispersion; Ecology; Environmental Management; Freshwater & Marine Ecology; Life Sciences; Marine & Freshwater Sciences; Oceanography; Research Article; Rivers; Streams
• ISSN: 1015-1621; 1420-9055
• DOI: 10.1007/s00027-020-00757-5

Diversity at the local scale is determined by different, and often interacting factors. One factor that is suggested to be important in determining community structure is productivity, which is related to diversity. Though this relationship might depend on different factors, a hump-shaped, U-shaped or positive linear relationship seems to be frequent at the local scale. On the other hand, the concept of metacommunity considers how several communities are linked through dispersal. Here, we experimentally assessed how primary producer biomass and dispersal barriers drive diversity at the local scale in Mediterranean streams. We did this by creating a reach scale study system that resembled a metacommunity. We found that higher primary producer biomass promotes a saturating relationship with diversity. However, we did not detect any effect of the dispersal barriers on the responses. Thus, our results show that, at the local scale, patch primary producer biomass plays a more important role in determining the community structure and colonization than dispersal barriers. In the framework of metacommunity theory, our study system can be explained by combining assumptions of the “Mass-Effects” and the “Species-Sorting” archetypes, supporting a non-exclusive view of these hypotheses.