Different in the dark: The effect of habitat characteristics on community composition and beta diversity in bromeliad microfauna.
The mechanisms which structure communities have been the focus of a large body of research. Here, we address the question if habitat characteristics describing habitat quality may drive changes in community composition and beta diversity of bromeliad-inhabiting microfauna. In our system, changes in...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2018-01-01
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| Series: | PLoS ONE |
| Online Access: | http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC5798767?pdf=render |
| _version_ | 1811201673946726400 |
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| author | Annika Busse Pablo A P Antiqueira Alexandre S Neutzling Anna M Wolf Gustavo Q Romero Jana S Petermann |
| author_facet | Annika Busse Pablo A P Antiqueira Alexandre S Neutzling Anna M Wolf Gustavo Q Romero Jana S Petermann |
| author_sort | Annika Busse |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The mechanisms which structure communities have been the focus of a large body of research. Here, we address the question if habitat characteristics describing habitat quality may drive changes in community composition and beta diversity of bromeliad-inhabiting microfauna. In our system, changes in canopy cover along an environmental gradient may affect resource availability, disturbance in form of daily water temperature fluctuations and predation, and thus may lead to changes in community structure of bromeliad microfauna through differences in habitat quality along this gradient. Indeed, we observed distinct changes in microfauna community composition along the environmental gradient explained by changes in the extent of daily water temperature fluctuations. We found beta diversity to be higher under low habitat quality (low canopy cover) than under high habitat quality (high canopy cover), which could potentially be explained by a higher relative importance of stochastic processes under low habitat quality. We also partitioned beta diversity into turnover and nestedness components and we found a nested pattern of beta diversity along the environmental gradient, with communities from the lower-quality habitat being nested subsets of communities from the higher-quality habitat. However, this pattern resulted from an increase in microfauna alpha diversity with an increase in habitat quality. By providing insights into microfauna-environment relationships our results contribute to the mechanistic understanding of community dynamics in small freshwater bodies. Here, we highlight the importance of habitat characteristics representing habitat quality in structuring communities, and suggest that this information may help to improve conservation practices of small freshwater ecosystems. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-12T02:25:08Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-07a42990278f4d7cbb6f7f7b32118d0d |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1932-6203 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-12T02:25:08Z |
| publishDate | 2018-01-01 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PLoS ONE |
| spelling | doaj.art-07a42990278f4d7cbb6f7f7b32118d0d2022-12-22T03:52:01ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032018-01-01132e019142610.1371/journal.pone.0191426Different in the dark: The effect of habitat characteristics on community composition and beta diversity in bromeliad microfauna.Annika BussePablo A P AntiqueiraAlexandre S NeutzlingAnna M WolfGustavo Q RomeroJana S PetermannThe mechanisms which structure communities have been the focus of a large body of research. Here, we address the question if habitat characteristics describing habitat quality may drive changes in community composition and beta diversity of bromeliad-inhabiting microfauna. In our system, changes in canopy cover along an environmental gradient may affect resource availability, disturbance in form of daily water temperature fluctuations and predation, and thus may lead to changes in community structure of bromeliad microfauna through differences in habitat quality along this gradient. Indeed, we observed distinct changes in microfauna community composition along the environmental gradient explained by changes in the extent of daily water temperature fluctuations. We found beta diversity to be higher under low habitat quality (low canopy cover) than under high habitat quality (high canopy cover), which could potentially be explained by a higher relative importance of stochastic processes under low habitat quality. We also partitioned beta diversity into turnover and nestedness components and we found a nested pattern of beta diversity along the environmental gradient, with communities from the lower-quality habitat being nested subsets of communities from the higher-quality habitat. However, this pattern resulted from an increase in microfauna alpha diversity with an increase in habitat quality. By providing insights into microfauna-environment relationships our results contribute to the mechanistic understanding of community dynamics in small freshwater bodies. Here, we highlight the importance of habitat characteristics representing habitat quality in structuring communities, and suggest that this information may help to improve conservation practices of small freshwater ecosystems.http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC5798767?pdf=render |
| spellingShingle | Annika Busse Pablo A P Antiqueira Alexandre S Neutzling Anna M Wolf Gustavo Q Romero Jana S Petermann Different in the dark: The effect of habitat characteristics on community composition and beta diversity in bromeliad microfauna. PLoS ONE |
| title | Different in the dark: The effect of habitat characteristics on community composition and beta diversity in bromeliad microfauna. |
| title_full | Different in the dark: The effect of habitat characteristics on community composition and beta diversity in bromeliad microfauna. |
| title_fullStr | Different in the dark: The effect of habitat characteristics on community composition and beta diversity in bromeliad microfauna. |
| title_full_unstemmed | Different in the dark: The effect of habitat characteristics on community composition and beta diversity in bromeliad microfauna. |
| title_short | Different in the dark: The effect of habitat characteristics on community composition and beta diversity in bromeliad microfauna. |
| title_sort | different in the dark the effect of habitat characteristics on community composition and beta diversity in bromeliad microfauna |
| url | http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC5798767?pdf=render |
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