Publication
Title
Stream diatom community assembly processes in islands and continents : a global perspective
Author
Abstract
Aim: Understanding the roles of deterministic and stochastic processes in community assembly is essential for gaining insights into the biogeographical patterns of biodiversity. However, the way community assembly processes operate is still not fully understood, especially in oceanic islands. In this study, we examine the importance of assembly processes in shaping diatom communities in islands and continents, while also investigating the influence of climate and local water chemistry variables on species distributions.Location: Global.Taxon: Stream benthic diatoms.Methods: We used diatom datasets from five continents and 19 islands and applied beta diversity analyses with a null model approach and hierarchical joint species distribution modelling. To facilitate comparisons with continents, we used continental area equivalents (CAEs), which represent continental subsets with comparable areas and the same number of study sites as their corresponding islands counterparts.Results: We found that homogeneous selection (i.e., communities being more similar than the random expectation) was the dominant assembly process within islands whereas stochastic processes tended to be more important within continents. In addition, assembly processes were influenced by study scale and island isolation. Climatic variables showed a greater influence on species distribution than local factors. However, in islands, local environmental variables had a greater impact on the distributions of unique taxa as opposed to non-unique taxa.Main Conclusions: We observed that the assembly processes of diatom communities were complex and influenced by a combination of deterministic and stochastic forces, which varied across spatial scales. In islands, there was no universal pattern of assembly processes, given that their influence depends on abiotic conditions such as area, isolation, and environmental heterogeneity. In addition, the sensitivity of species occurring uniquely in islands to local environmental variables suggests that they are perhaps less vulnerable to climatic changes but may be more influenced by changes in local physicochemistry.
Language
English
Source (journal)
Journal of biogeography. - Oxford
Publication
Hoboken : Wiley , 2024
ISSN
0305-0270
DOI
10.1111/JBI.14761
Volume/pages
51 :3 (2024) , p. 382-393
ISI
001109298200001
Full text (Publisher's DOI)
Full text (open access)
UAntwerpen
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Research group
Publication type
Subject
Affiliation
Publications with a UAntwerp address
External links
Web of Science
Record
Identifier
Creation 09.01.2024
Last edited 23.04.2024
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