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The relative importance of spatial and environmental processes in distribution of benthic chironomid larvae within a large and shallow lake

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Abstract

Although chironomids are popular model organisms in ecological research and indicators of bioassessment, the relative role of dispersal and environmental filtering in their community assembly is still poorly known, especially at fine spatial scales. In this study, we applied a metacommunity framework and used various statistical tools to examine the relative role of spatial and local environmental factors in distribution of benthic chironomid taxa and their assemblages in large and shallow Lake Balaton, Hungary. Contrary to present predictions on the metacommunity organisation of aquatic insects with winged terrestrial adults, we found that dispersal limitation can considerably affect distribution of chironomids even at lake scale. However, we also revealed the predominant influence of environmental filtering, and strong taxa–environment relationships were observed especially along sediment type, sediment organic matter content and macrophyte coverage gradients. We account that identified reference conditions and assemblages along with specified optima and tolerances of the abundant taxa can contribute to our understanding of chironomid ecology and be utilised in shallow lake bioassessment. Further, we propose that predictive models of species–environment relationships should better take into account pure spatial structuring of local communities and species-specific variability of spatial processes and environmental control even at small spatial scales.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Géza Dobos for his assistance in the field. Special thanks to Steve Juggins for providing us a free C2 license. This research was supported by the European Union and the State of Hungary, co-financed by the European Social Fund in the framework of TÁMOP-4.2.4.A/2-11/1-2012-0001 ‘National Excellence Program’ and the Hungarian Scientific Research Fund (OTKA K104279).

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  1. Balaton Limnological Institute, MTA Centre for Ecological Research, Klebelsberg K. u. 3, 8237, Tihany, Hungary

    Diána Árva, Mónika Tóth, Hajnalka Horváth & András Specziár

  2. Department of Hydrobiology, University of Debrecen, Egyetem tér 1, 4032, Debrecen, Hungary

    Sándor A. Nagy

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  1. Diána Árva
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  2. Mónika Tóth
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  3. Hajnalka Horváth
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  4. Sándor A. Nagy
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  5. András Specziár
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Correspondence to Diána Árva.

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Árva, D., Tóth, M., Horváth, H. et al. The relative importance of spatial and environmental processes in distribution of benthic chironomid larvae within a large and shallow lake. Hydrobiologia 742, 249–266 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-014-1989-z

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