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Use of multivariate dispersion to assess water quality based on species composition data

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Abstract

Multivariate dispersion is a powerful approach to determine the variability in species composition of a fauna or a flora and has been considered as a broad β-diversity in global ecological research. To explore the availability of the dispersions based on species composition data for assessing water quality, a dataset of ciliated protozoa in a basin ecosystem, northern China, was studied. Samples were collected from five sampling stations, within a significant heterogeneity of environmental stress. The homogeneity of multivariate dispersions in species composition of the ciliate assemblages represented a clear spatial pattern in response to the environmental stress. Multivariate analysis demonstrated that the spatial variation in species composition of the ciliate was significantly correlated with the changes of environmental variables, especially the nutrients, in combination with the salinity and pH, or alone. Furthermore, the dispersion measure was found to be significantly related to the nutrient. Based on our data, we suggest that multivariate dispersion measures based on species presence/absence data might be used as a potential bioindicator of water quality in marine ecosystems.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41076089, 31071898 and 31500339) and the Darwin Initiative Programme (No. 14–015) which is funded by UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, and Scholarship Award for Excellent Doctoral Student granted by Chinese Ministry of Education.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Marine Life Science, Ocean University of China, Qingdao, 266003, China

    Yong Jiang, Guangjian Xu & Henglong Xu

Authors
  1. Yong Jiang
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  2. Guangjian Xu
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  3. Henglong Xu
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Correspondence to Henglong Xu.

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We declare that this manuscript complies to the ethical rules applicable.

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The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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Responsible editor: Philippe Garrigues

Yong Jiang and Guangjian Xu are co-first authors.

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Jiang, Y., Xu, G. & Xu, H. Use of multivariate dispersion to assess water quality based on species composition data. Environ Sci Pollut Res 23, 3267–3272 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-015-5583-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-015-5583-3

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