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Environmental filtering determines metacommunity structure in wetland microcrustaceans

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Abstract

Metacommunity approaches are becoming popular when analyzing factors driving species distribution at the regional scale. However, until the popularization of the variation partitioning technique it was difficult to assess the main drivers of the observed patterns (spatial or environmental). Here we propose a new framework linking the emergence of different metacommunity structures (e.g., nested, Gleasonian, Clementsian) to spatial and environmental filters. This is a novel approach that provides a more profound analysis of how both drivers could lead to similar metacommunity structures. We tested this framework on 110 sites covering a strong environmental gradient (i.e., microcrustacean assemblages organized along a salinity gradient, from freshwater to brackish water wetlands). First we identified the metacommunity structure that better fitted these microcrustacean assemblages. Then, we used hierarchical variation partitioning to quantify the relative influences of environmental filters and the distance among wetlands on the identified structure. Our results showed that under strong environmental filtering metacommunity structures were non-random. We also noted that even passive dispersers, that are supposed to be poorly spatially filtered, showed spatial signals at a large geographical scale. However, some difficulties arose when inferring biotic interactions at finer-scale spatial signals. Overall, our study shows the potential of elements of metacommunity structure combined with variation partition techniques to detect environmental drivers and broadscale patterns of metacommunity structure, and that some caution is needed when interpreting finer-scale spatial signals.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to dedicate this paper to the memory of Dr. Maria Rieradevall, who was a passionate scientist and a beautiful person. We wish to thank the handling editor Dr. William Resetarits, and two anonymous reviewers, for constructive suggestions that improved the manuscript. Special thanks are due to Antoni Munné and Carolina Solà from the Catalan Water Agency for their encouragement and facilities while conducting this applied research. This work was financially supported by the Catalan Water Agency, the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (CGL2011-23907), and the Generalitat de Catalunya (ref. 2014 SGR 484).

Author contribution statement

S. G., I. A., A. R., J. S., X. Q. and D. B. conceived the ideas; all authors participated in the data collection; S. G., I. A., and A. R. analyzed the results; S. G. wrote the first draft of the manuscript, and coordinated revisions. All authors contributed to the writing.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. GRECO, Institute of Aquatic Ecology, University of Girona, Girona, Spain

    Stéphanie Gascón, Ignasi Arranz, Albert Ruhí, Jordi Sala, Xavier D. Quintana & Dani Boix

  2. BETA Research Group, University of Vic-Central University of Catalonia, Catalonia, Spain

    Ignasi Arranz & Miguel Cañedo-Argüelles

  3. FEM (Freshwater Ecology and Management) Research Group, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

    Miguel Cañedo-Argüelles & Maria Rieradevall

  4. IRTA Aquatic Ecosystems, Sant Carles de la Ràpita, Spain

    Alfonso Nebra, Nuno Caiola & Carles Ibàñez

  5. Global Institute of Sustainability, Arizona State University, Tempe, USA

    Albert Ruhí

  6. IRBio (Institut de Recerca de Biodiversitat), University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

    Maria Rieradevall

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  1. Stéphanie Gascón
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  2. Ignasi Arranz
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  3. Miguel Cañedo-Argüelles
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Correspondence to Stéphanie Gascón.

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Communicated by William J. Resetarits.

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Gascón, S., Arranz, I., Cañedo-Argüelles, M. et al. Environmental filtering determines metacommunity structure in wetland microcrustaceans. Oecologia 181, 193–205 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-015-3540-y

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