Habitat connectivity and in-stream vegetation control temporal variability of benthic invertebrate communities.

ABSTRACT: One of the key challenges to understanding patterns of β diversity is to disentangle deterministic patterns from stochastic ones. Stochastic processes may mask the influence of deterministic factors on community dynamics, hindering identification of the mechanisms causing variation in community composition. We studied temporal β diversity (among-year dissimilarity) of macroinvertebrate communities in near-pristine boreal streams across 14 years. To assess whether the observed β diversity deviates from that expected by chance, and to identify processes (deterministic vs. stochastic) through which different explanatory factors affect community variability, we used a null model approach. We observed that at the majority of sites temporal β diversity was low indicating high community stability

SUBMITTER: Huttunen KL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5431217 | biostudies-literature | 2017 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature