Diversity and composition of macroinvertebrate communities in a rare inland salt marsh.

ABSTRACT: Inland salt marshes are rare habitats in the Great Lakes region of North America, formed on salt deposits from the Silurian period. These patchy habitats are abiotically stressful for the freshwater invertebrates that live there, and provide an opportunity to study the relationship between stress and diversity. We used morphological and COI metabarcoding data to assess changes in diversity and composition across both space (a transect from the salt seep to an adjacent freshwater area) and time (three sampling seasons). Richness was significantly lower at the seep site with both datatypes, while metabarcoding data additionally showed reduced richness at the freshwater transect end, consistent with a pattern where intermediate levels of stress show higher diversity. We found complementary, r

SUBMITTER: Cahill AE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8571600 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature