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Disentangling the roles of spatial and environmental variables in shaping benthic algal assemblages in rivers of central and northern China

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Abstract

Benthic algae were collected from central and northern Chinese rivers to test the hypothesis that geographic location has significant contributions in shaping algal assemblages. We used Moran’s eigenvector maps (MEM) to model spatial components and variation partitioning to quantify the influences of spatial and environmental variables on regional patterns of algal richness and community composition, respectively. We found that variation in algal richness was attributed to MEM component 2, 8, and 9 and the quadratic term of N–NO3. Regarding abundance data, latitude, longitude, and MEM component 1, 2, and 7 were important spatial variables. Although P–PO4, pH, and annual mean temperature were significant environmental variables influencing algal community composition, they were all spatially structured. Among the total explained variance in both algal metrics, spatial proportions were higher than that of environmental variables. We also found that abundant species of Achnanthidium minutissimum, Cocconeis placentula, Cymbella delicatula, Cymbella affinis, Cymbella turgidula, and Synedra ulna displayed clear spatially related patterns. In conclusion, the contributions of spatial and environmental variables to regional variation of algal assemblages are scale-dependent. As for our study scale (~1,000 km), spatial control may be more important. Since spatial effects could obscure local environmental impacts on algal communities, appropriate study scale and statistical methods should be taken into account in algal bioassessment. We recommend inclusion of both algal richness and community composition in study of algal biogeography, due to their different relationships with spatial and environmental variables.

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Acknowledgements

This research was financially supported by Major Science and Technology Program for Water Pollution Control and Treatment (No. 2012ZX07104-002; No. 2012ZX07501-002-07) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 30330140). We thank Xiaoli Tong for help in fieldwork, Ruiqiu Liu and Xinghuan Jia for assistance in chemical analysis. Special thanks to Bill Gould for language improvement and valuable comments.

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Author notes

  1. Naicheng Wu

    Present address: Department of Hydrology and Water Resource Management, Ecology Center, Kiel University, Olshausenstrasse 75, 24118, Kiel, Germany

  2. Fengqing Li

    Present address: Department of Limnology and Conservation, Biodiversity and Climate Research Institute (BiK-F) and Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum Frankfurt, Clamecystr. 12, 63571, Gelnhausen, Germany

  3. Xiaocheng Fu

    Present address: Shanghai Nuclear Engineering Research and Design Institute, Shanghai, 200233, People’s Republic of China

Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Freshwater Ecology and Biotechnology, Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, 430072, People’s Republic of China

    Tao Tang, Naicheng Wu, Fengqing Li, Xiaocheng Fu & Qinghua Cai

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  1. Tao Tang
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Correspondence to Qinghua Cai.

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Appendix

Appendix

See Tables 4 and 5.

Table 4 The mean values of measured environmental variables for each site (sites were listed from south to north)
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Table 5 Algal species displaying distinct positive or negative correlations with the significant RDA canonical axes (taxon with an absolute species score >0.1 is presented)
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Tang, T., Wu, N., Li, F. et al. Disentangling the roles of spatial and environmental variables in shaping benthic algal assemblages in rivers of central and northern China. Aquat Ecol 47, 453–466 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10452-013-9458-8

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