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Colonization of ephemeral detrital patches by vagile macroinvertebrates in a brackish lake: a body size-related process?

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Abstract

The mechanisms regulating the build-up of invertebrate assemblages on ephemeral detritus patches are still poorly understood. Here, the daily colonization of decaying reed leaves by vagile macroinvertebrates was monitored in an brackish lake in Italy. The highly variable abundance patterns of dominant taxa were analysed by spectral and geostatistical techniques to test for nonrandomness and to further determine whether they were related to body size. Comparisons between two contrasting sites allowed an assessment of the generality of our observations. At both sites, the macroinvertebrate assemblage was dominated by three detritivorous taxa, i.e. the isopod Lekanesphaera monodi, the amphipod Microdeutopus gryllotalpa and the polychaete Neanthes caudata. Overall, their abundance patterns were characterised by short-term fluctuations of a nonrandom, autocorrelated nature. In addition, a significant covariation was observed between the average body mass of each taxon and the complexity of the respective abundance pattern, expressed by the fractal dimension D. The covariation was observed at both study sites, notwithstanding the diverging outcomes of bivariate pattern comparisons for similar-sized taxa. Our findings indicate that the size of macroinvertebrates is strongly related to the short-term dynamics of their abundance patterns on reed detritus, suggesting that the interaction between vagile consumers and ephemeral resource patches might be influenced by individual energetics. The implications of size-related constraints for the coexistence of species on decaying detrital patches are discussed.

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Acknowledgments

We wish to thank Piervincenzo Pintozzi and Luca Tafuro for their help in field data collection, and Franca Sangiorgio for providing information on the Lake Alimini system. We are in debt to Donald DeAngelis for his comments on an advanced version of the manuscript, which was further improved by constructive suggestions provided by Peter Schmid and an anonymous reviewer. Funding from EEC project n ENV-CT97-0584, INTERREG IIIB CADSES (2000–2006), and FIRB 2003–2005 are acknowledged. All of the experiments described in the present paper comply with current Italian laws.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Di.S.Te.B.A—Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences and Technologies, University of Lecce, sp Lecce-Monteroni, 73100, Lecce, Italy

    Giorgio Mancinelli, Letizia Sabetta & Alberto Basset

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  1. Giorgio Mancinelli
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  2. Letizia Sabetta
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  3. Alberto Basset
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Correspondence to Giorgio Mancinelli.

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Communicated by Martin Attrill.

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Mancinelli, G., Sabetta, L. & Basset, A. Colonization of ephemeral detrital patches by vagile macroinvertebrates in a brackish lake: a body size-related process?. Oecologia 151, 292–302 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-006-0586-x

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