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Unionid mussel composition and ditch environments in floodplain and alluvial fan geomorphic types: a case study of a Lake Biwa river basin

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Abstract

To determine the differences in the ditch environments and mussel composition between floodplains and alluvial fans, two geomorphic types in a Lake Biwa river basin were surveyed. An intrinsic Gaussian conditional autoregressive (CAR) model was applied to assess the relationship between the density of Nodularia douglasiae biwae, the dominant species in the floodplain area, and ditch environment. Relative to the alluvial fan area, ditches in the floodplain area had higher percentages of muddy and sandy substrates, a lower percentage of pebble substrates, greater sediment softness, faster flow velocity, and deeper water depth. N. d. biwae and Pronodularia japanensis were collected in both the floodplain and alluvial fan areas. Lanceolaria grayana and Sinanodonta japonica were captured only in the floodplain area, and Sinanodonta lauta was found only in the alluvial fan area. The differences in the ditch environments between the two geomorphic types and the drought tolerance of the mussel species may explain why the mussel composition differs between the two geomorphic types. The CAR model indicated that N. d. biwae was more abundant in ditches with sandy and soft sediment and with deeper water. It also points to the importance of microhabitat-scale sampling to determine the relationship between unionid density and ditch environment.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Dr. Sigeya Nagayama (Aqua Restoration Research Center, Public Works Research Institute) for his helpful advice, and Messrs. Tatsuya Yamamoto, Sigemasa Yamaue, and Tomoyoshi Tsubouti (The University of Shiga Prefecture) for their cooperation in the field. Dr. Eric R. Larson, the associate editor, and two anonymous reviewers are thanked for their critical comments that improved the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Environmental Science, The University of Shiga Prefecture, 2500 Hassaka, Hikone, Shiga, 522-8533, Japan

    Mitsunori Nakano

  2. Faculty of Environmental Science, The University of Shiga Prefecture, 2500 Hassaka, Hikone, Shiga, 522-8533, Japan

    Koh-Ichi Takakura, Kiyohito Morii & Misako Urabe

Authors
  1. Mitsunori Nakano
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  2. Koh-Ichi Takakura
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  3. Kiyohito Morii
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  4. Misako Urabe
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Correspondence to Mitsunori Nakano.

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Handling Editor: Eric Larson.

Appendix

Appendix

figure a

The WinBUGS code for the CAR model. Parameter num[i] represents the Poisson response, i.e., the density of N. d. biwae in the ith quadrat. Parameter beta[i] denotes the coefficient of each factor, and parameter beta[5] is a constant. The term re[i] is the spatial random effect of the ith quadrat and dummy plot. Adj[], Weight[] and Num[] define the structure of the spatial random effect: these describe topologies and adjacency relations among quadrats, including dummy plots. The terms dnorm (0, 1.0E–4) and dunif (0, 1.0E+4) denote the non-informative (flat) prior probabilities for each parameter

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Nakano, M., Takakura, KI., Morii, K. et al. Unionid mussel composition and ditch environments in floodplain and alluvial fan geomorphic types: a case study of a Lake Biwa river basin. Limnology 18, 41–49 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10201-016-0486-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10201-016-0486-7

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