Environmental heterogeneity increases dissimilarity in zooplankton functional traits along a large Neotropical river

Beta diversity is the variability in species composition among sampling units for a given area and can be influenced by several environmental drivers, including environmental heterogeneity. Here, we considered the contribution of seven tributaries flowing into the Upper Paraná River channel as the m...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Hydrobiologia 2022-08, Vol.849 (14), p.3135-3147
Main Authors: Ribeiro, Bárbhara Isabella Oenning, Braghin, Louizi de Souza Magalhães, Lansac-Tôha, Fernando Miranda, Bomfim, Francieli Fátima, Almeida, Bia A., Bonecker, Cláudia Costa, Lansac-Tôha, Fábio Amôdeo
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Analysis
Biological diversity
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Community composition
Components
Dissolved oxygen
Ecology
Environmental changes
Environmental testing
Footwear
Freshwater & Marine Ecology
Heterogeneity
Life Sciences
Plankton
Primary Research Paper
River channels
Rivers
Species composition
Suspended matter
Suspended organic matter
Tributaries
Zoology
Zooplankton
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Beta diversity is the variability in species composition among sampling units for a given area and can be influenced by several environmental drivers, including environmental heterogeneity. Here, we considered the contribution of seven tributaries flowing into the Upper Paraná River channel as the mains drivers of environmental heterogeneity and zooplankton beta diversity. We used Mantel test to examine the relationships between zooplankton functional beta diversity components (total, turnover, and nestedness) and environmental and geographical distance. Generalized dissimilarity modeling (GDM) was run to test which environmental variables were the best predictors of beta diversity components. Mantel’s test results revealed that total beta diversity was positively related with environmental heterogeneity in almost all periods. GDM analysis results showed that total beta and turnover were related to temperature, organic suspended matter, dissolved oxygen, NH4, and pH, while nestedness was influenced by depth and geographic distances. Our results support the idea that smaller rivers are a main source of diversity for large rivers, especially the ones with cascading reservoirs. Overall, our study shoes that variation in limnological variables results in higher dissimilarity in zooplankton communities and that environmental change filters and sorts species according to their functional traits.
ISSN:0018-8158
1573-5117
DOI:10.1007/s10750-022-04917-6