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Using lower taxonomic resolution and ecological approaches as a surrogate for plankton species

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Abstract

The use of lower taxonomic resolutions and ecological classifications can function as a strategy to minimize difficulties in plankton identification. To assess this issue, we evaluated the concordance of the spatial ordering of lakes in a floodplain using phytoplankton and zooplankton densities scaled at three taxonomic levels (species, genus, and family) and two exclusive ecological classifications for phytoplankton [Reynolds functional groups (RFGs) and morphology-based functional groups]. Furthermore, we evaluated the concordance of environmental variables with each taxonomic resolution/ecological classification. Procrustes and Mantel tests (simple and partial) were used for the concordance analysis. The correlations between species and higher taxonomic levels were found for phytoplankton and zooplankton. For the ecological classifications, significant r values, greater than 0.70, were obtained only for the Mantel test between species and RFGs. The relationship between species and genus and between species and family for phytoplankton can be explained by the environmental structure. For zooplankton, only species were related to environmental variables. These results indicate that it is possible to adopt a lower taxonomic resolution for identification of phytoplankton and zooplankton without a significant loss of information. However, the use of ecological classifications for phytoplankton is not recommended for this purpose.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the anonymous reviewer for suggestions that improved previous version of this manuscript. KBM and PPB thank to Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) by AT-B scholarship and to Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) by master schorlarship (de pós-graduação em Recursos Naturais do Cerrado). VLMH and JCN also are funded by CNPq (process 309700/2013-2 and 306719/2013-4). Our work has been continuously supported by CNPq (project nº 563834/2010-2), Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Goiás (FAPEG), and CAPES (Auxpe 2036/2013).

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  1. Unidade Universitária de Ciências Exatas e Tecnológicas (UnUCET), Universidade Estadual de Goiás (UEG), BR 153, no 3.105, Anápolis, Goiás, CEP 75132-903, Brazil

    Karine Borges Machado, Pedro Paulino Borges, Fernanda Melo Carneiro & João Carlos Nabout

  2. Universidade de Brasília (UnB), Campus Planaltina, Área Universitária 1, Vila Nossa Senhora de Fátima, Planaltina, Distrito Federal, CEP 73345-010, Brazil

    Juliana Ferreira de Santana & Ludgero Cardoso Galli Vieira

  3. Laboratório de Ficologia, Museu Nacional, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Quinta da Boa Vista s/n, São Cristovão, CEP 20940-040, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil

    Vera Lúcia de Moraes Huszar

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  1. Karine Borges Machado
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  2. Pedro Paulino Borges
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Machado, K.B., Borges, P.P., Carneiro, F.M. et al. Using lower taxonomic resolution and ecological approaches as a surrogate for plankton species. Hydrobiologia 743, 255–267 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-014-2042-y

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