scholarly journals Mechanisms of community assembly explaining beta‐diversity patterns across biogeographic regions

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miguel Muñoz Mazón ◽  
J. Sebastián Tello ◽  
Manuel J. Macía ◽  
Jonathan A. Myers ◽  
Peter M. Jørgensen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Community Assembly ◽  
Beta Diversity ◽  
Diversity Patterns ◽  
Biogeographic Regions

scholarly journals Exploring the potential of metabarcoding to disentangle macroinvertebrate community dynamics in intermittent streams

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex Laini ◽  
Arne J. Beermann ◽  
Rossano Bolpagni ◽  
Gemma Burgazzi ◽  
Vasco Elbrecht ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Community Assembly ◽  
Beta Diversity ◽  
Community Dynamics ◽  
Macroinvertebrate Community ◽  
Taxonomic Resolution ◽  
Accurate Information ◽  
Morphological Identification ◽  
Intermittent Streams ◽  
Diversity Patterns ◽  
Taxonomic Sufficiency

Taxonomic sufficiency represents the level of taxonomic detail needed to detect ecological patterns to a level that match the requirement of a study. Most bioassessments apply the taxonomic sufficiency concept and assign specimens to the family or genus level given time constraints and the difficulty to correctly identify species. This holds particularly true for stream invertebrates because small and morphologically similar larvae are hard to distinguish. Low taxonomic resolution may hinder detecting true community dynamics, which thus leads to incorrect inferences about community assembly processes. DNA metabarcoding is a new, affordable and cost-effective tool for the identification of multiple species from bulk samples of organisms. As it provides high taxonomic resolution, it can be used to compare results obtained from different identification levels. Measuring the effect of taxonomic resolution on the detection of community dynamics is especially interesting in extreme ecosystems like intermittent streams to test if species at intermittent sites are subsets of those from perennial sources or if independently recruiting taxa exist. Here we aimed to compare the performance of morphological identification and metabarcoding to detect macroinvertebrate community dynamics in the Trebbia River (Italy). Macroinvertebrates were collected from four perennial and two intermittent sites two months after flow resumption and before the next dry phase. The identification level ranged from family to haplotype. Metabarcoding and morphological identifications found similar alpha diversity patterns when looking at family and mixed taxonomic levels. Increasing taxonomic resolution with metabarcoding revealed a strong partitioning of beta diversity in nestedness and turnover components. At flow resumption, beta diversity at intermittent sites was dominated by nestedness when family-level information was employed, while turnover was evidenced as the most important component when using Operational Taxonomic Units (OTUs) or haplotypes. The increased taxonomic resolution with metabarcoding allowed us to detect species adapted to deal with intermittency, like the chironomid Cricotopus bicinctus and the ephemeropteran Cloeon dipterum. Our study thus shows that family and mixed taxonomic level are not sufficient to detect all aspects of macroinvertebrate community dynamics. High taxonomic resolution is especially important for intermittent streams where accurate information about species-specific habitat preference is needed to interpret diversity patterns induced by drying and the nestedness/turnover components of beta diversity are of interest to understand community assembly processes.

Functional beta-diversity patterns reveal deterministic community assembly processes in eastern North American trees

2012 ◽  
Vol 22 (6) ◽  
pp. 682-691 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Siefert ◽  
Catherine Ravenscroft ◽  
Michael D. Weiser ◽  
Nathan G. Swenson
Keyword(s):  
North American ◽  
Community Assembly ◽  
Beta Diversity ◽  
Diversity Patterns

scholarly journals Alpha and beta diversity patterns of polychaete assemblages across the nodule province of the eastern Clarion-Clipperton Fracture Zone (equatorial Pacific)

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 865-886 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paulo Bonifácio ◽  
Pedro Martínez Arbizu ◽  
Lénaïck Menot
Keyword(s):  
Fracture Zone ◽  
Beta Diversity ◽  
Species Turnover ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Equatorial Pacific ◽  
Equatorial Pacific Ocean ◽  
Species Ranges ◽  
Diversity Patterns ◽  
Clipperton Fracture Zone ◽  
Clarion Clipperton Fracture Zone

Abstract. In the abyssal equatorial Pacific Ocean, most of the seafloor of the Clarion-Clipperton Fracture Zone (CCFZ), a 6 million km2 polymetallic nodule province, has been preempted for future mining. In light of the large environmental footprint that mining would leave and given the diversity and the vulnerability of the abyssal fauna, the International Seabed Authority has implemented a regional management plan that includes the creation of nine Areas of Particular Environmental Interest (APEIs) located at the periphery of the CCFZ. The scientific principles for the design of the APEIs were based on the best – albeit very limited – knowledge of the area. The fauna and habitats in the APEIs are unknown, as are species' ranges and the extent of biodiversity across the CCFZ. As part of the Joint Programming Initiative Healthy and Productive Seas and Oceans (JPI Oceans) pilot action “Ecological aspects of deep-sea mining”, the SO239 cruise provided data to improve species inventories, determine species ranges, identify the drivers of beta diversity patterns and assess the representativeness of an APEI. Four exploration contract areas and an APEI (APEI no. 3) were sampled along a gradient of sea surface primary productivity that spanned a distance of 1440 km in the eastern CCFZ. Between three and eight quantitative box cores (0.25 m2; 0–10 cm) were sampled in each study area, resulting in a large collection of polychaetes that were morphologically and molecularly (cytochrome c oxidase subunit I and 16S genes) analyzed. A total of 275 polychaete morphospecies were identified. Only one morphospecies was shared among all five study areas and 49 % were singletons. The patterns in community structure and composition were mainly attributed to variations in organic carbon fluxes to the seafloor at the regional scale and nodule density at the local scale, thus supporting the main assumptions underlying the design of the APEIs. However, the APEI no. 3, which is located in an oligotrophic province and separated from the CCFZ by the Clarion Fracture Zone, showed the lowest densities, lowest diversity, and a very low and distant independent similarity in community composition compared to the contract areas, thus questioning the representativeness and the appropriateness of APEI no. 3 to meet its purpose of diversity preservation. Among the four exploration contracts, which belong to a mesotrophic province, the distance decay of similarity provided a species turnover of 0.04 species km−1, an average species range of 25 km and an extrapolated richness of up to 240 000 polychaete species in the CCFZ. By contrast, nonparametric estimators of diversity predict a regional richness of up to 498 species. Both estimates are biased by the high frequency of singletons in the dataset, which likely result from under-sampling and merely reflect our level of uncertainty. The assessment of potential risks and scales of biodiversity loss due to nodule mining thus requires an appropriate inventory of species richness in the CCFZ.

Environmental correlates of herpetofaunal diversity in Costa Rica

2010 ◽  
Vol 26 (5) ◽  
pp. 521-531 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Laurencio ◽  
Lee A. Fitzgerald
Keyword(s):  
Costa Rica ◽  
Species Diversity ◽  
Beta Diversity ◽  
Geographic Distance ◽  
Alpha Diversity ◽  
High Elevation ◽  
Diversity Patterns ◽  
Regional Diversity ◽  
Environmental Correlates ◽  
High Elevation Site

Abstract:Disentangling local and historical factors that determine species diversity patterns at multiple spatial scales is fundamental to elucidating processes that govern ecological communities. Here we investigated how environmental correlates may influence diversity at local and regional scales. Primarily utilizing published species lists, amphibian and reptile alpha and beta diversity were assessed at 17 well-surveyed sites distributed among ecoregions throughout Costa Rica. The degree to which regional species diversity patterns were related to environmental variables and geographic distance was determined using Canonical Correspondence Analysis and Mantel tests. Amphibian alpha diversity was highest in lowland Pacific sites (mean = 43.3 species) and lowest at the high elevation site (9 species). Reptile alpha diversity values were high for both lowland Atlantic (mean = 69.5 species) and lowland Pacific (mean = 67 species) sites and lowest for the high elevation site (8 species). We found high species turnover between local sites and ecoregions, demonstrating the importance of beta diversity in the determination of regional diversity. For both amphibians and reptiles, beta diversity was highest between the high-elevation site and all others, and lowest among lowland sites within the same ecoregion. The effect of geographic distance on beta diversity was minor. Ecologically significant climatic variables related to rain, temperature, sunshine and insolation were found to be important determinants of local and regional diversity for both amphibians and reptiles in Costa Rica.

scholarly journals Species richness and beta diversity patterns of multiple taxa along an elevational gradient in pastured grasslands in the European Alps

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Veronika Fontana ◽  
Elia Guariento ◽  
Andreas Hilpold ◽  
Georg Niedrist ◽  
Michael Steinwandter ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Species Richness ◽  
Beta Diversity ◽  
Elevational Gradient ◽  
European Alps ◽  
Diversity Patterns

Composition and diversity patterns of Eunicida and Amphinomida (Annelida) associated to dead coral in the Chinchorro Bank Biosphere Reserve, Caribbean Sea

2019 ◽  
Vol 99 (7) ◽  
pp. 1547-1555
Author(s):  
Pablo Hernández-Alcántara ◽  
Ismael Narciso Cruz-Pérez ◽  
Vivianne Solís-Weiss
Keyword(s):  
Beta Diversity ◽  
Central Zone ◽  
Biosphere Reserve ◽  
Caribbean Sea ◽  
Dominant Factor ◽  
Dead Coral ◽  
Diversity Patterns ◽  
Mexican Caribbean ◽  
The Family ◽  
Northern Zone

AbstractThe present study is the first attempt to describe beta-diversity patterns in polychaetes of the Caribbean Sea, analysing depth changes in species composition of the Eunicida and Amphinomida inhabiting dead coral in Chinchorro Bank, southern Mexican Caribbean. In April 2008, dead coral fragments were collected by scuba diving in eight stations along two bathymetric gradients (4–9 m and 7–16.2 m depth); 755 individuals from 53 species of the families Amphinomidae, Dorvilleidae, Eunicidae, Lumbrineridae, Oenonidae and Onuphidae were identified. The highest number of species (32) and individuals (514) were found in the family Eunicidae. The Northern transect harboured 36 species, on average 18.75 ind. L−1, which decreased linearly with depth; the Central transect had 43 species, on average 19.01 ind. L−1, which increased at middle depths. The species inhabiting both these zones were moderately different (βsor = 0.603): 49.06% of the fauna occurred on both transects, but the components of beta-diversity, turnover and nestedness, displayed distinct patterns: in the Northern one replacement was the dominant factor (βsim = 0.3–1; βnes = 0–0.091), practically representing all faunal differences (βsor = 0.391–1); in the Central, dissimilarity due to nestedness increased (βnes = 0.031–0.829), mainly at the shallowest stations, but from 5 m depth, beta-diversity was almost completely explained by species replacement (βsim = 0.417–0.5; βnes = 0.031–0.318). Faunal differences were mostly related to higher abundances of Lysidice caribensis, Eunice goodei and Lumbrineris floridana in the Northern zone, and Lumbrineris perkinsi, Nicidion obtusa, Lysidice caribensis, Lumbrineris floridana, Lysidice unicornis and Eunice mutilata in the Central zone.

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