Abstract
Several processes structure the aquatic insect community present in streams at different spatial scales. Local and regional scales drive aquatic communities, given that the water chemistry and river basin status affect species occurrence and population stability. Here, we observed the changes in aquatic insect communities related to environmental drivers, such as anthropic alteration, at different geographical scales. We sampled the insect communities in 110 streams at Brazilian Cerrado, and partitioned the variance explained by spatial and environmental components using a partial redundancy analysis. We used variables related to local and regional environmental conditions. The environment was spatially structured, and only affected the number of genera and community composition. The change in community composition was determined by local environmental conditions, such as pH, electrical conductivity, and conservation of the stream banks. These results suggest that the relationship of number of genera and community composition with environmental conditions is frequently associated with spatial scale. The importance of local environmental conditions in contrast with lack of relationship with regional variables denotes the influence of local determinants for aquatic insects, an emerging pattern of the close selectivity of insect species with their habitat.
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Acknowledgements
This study was supported by research grants from CNPq (process 303835/2009-5 and 475355/2007-5). The authors wish to thank UEG for the support received from the “Programa de Bolsa de Incentivo à Pesquisa” (PROBIP) and two anonymous reviewers who evaluated the manuscript.
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Godoy BS, Simião-Ferreira J, Camargos LM and Queiroz LL. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Godoy BS and Queiroz LL. All authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Godoy, B.S., Queiroz, L.L., Simião-Ferreira, J. et al. The effect of spatial scale on the detection of environmental drivers on aquatic insect communities in pristine and altered streams of the Brazilian Cerrado. Int J Trop Insect Sci 42, 2173–2182 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42690-022-00738-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42690-022-00738-1