Drivers of benthic metacommunity structure along tropical estuaries.

ABSTRACT: Community structure of many systems changes across space in many different ways (e.g., gradual, random or clumpiness). Accessing patterns of species spatial variation in ecosystems characterized by strong environmental gradients, such as estuaries, is essential to provide information on how species respond to them and for identification of potential underlying mechanisms. We investigated how environmental filters (i.e., strong environmental gradients that can include or exclude species in local communities), spatial predictors (i.e., geographical distance between communities) and temporal variations (e.g., different sampling periods) influence benthic macroinfaunal metacommunity structure along salinity gradients in tropical estuaries. We expected environmental filters to explain the highe

SUBMITTER: Alves AT 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6997391 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature