The influence of environmental, biotic and spatial factors on diatom metacommunity structure in Swedish headwater streams.

ABSTRACT: Stream assemblages are structured by a combination of local (environmental filtering and biotic interactions) and regional factors (e.g., dispersal related processes). The relative importance of environmental and spatial (i.e., regional) factors structuring stream assemblages has been frequently assessed in previous large-scale studies, but biotic predictors (potentially reflecting local biotic interactions) have rarely been included. Diatoms may be useful for studying the effect of trophic interactions on community structure since: (1) a majority of experimental studies shows significant grazing effects on diatom species composition, and (2) assemblages can be divided into guilds that have different susceptibility to grazing. We used a dataset from boreal headwater streams in south-centra

SUBMITTER: Gothe E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3744466 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature