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Taxonomic and functional successional patterns in macroinvertebrates related to flying dispersal abilities: a case study from isolated manmade ponds at reclaimed opencast coal mines

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Abstract

It has been proposed that communities change from r to K strategies during primary succession. However, because strong-flying organisms are expected to arrive first in newly created habitats and they show trait characteristics associated more often with K strategies, we hypothesized that the r to K trajectories would be more closely followed by flightless and poorly-flying organisms. Moreover, we expected that macroinvertebrate communities would converge in their functional composition due to deterministic forces while diverging as taxonomic assemblages due to stochastic drift and biotic interactions. However, we also expected that dispersal abilities of the organisms would affect these tendencies. To address these issues, macroinvertebrates were sampled from isolated manmade ponds of different ages (1–22 years old) constructed at reclaimed opencast coal mines. In accordance with our expectations, only flightless and poorly-flying organisms exhibited a slight shift from r to K strategies, the community taxonomically diverged along the primary succession gradient, and stochastic drift showed greater effects on strong-flying organisms. In contrast, the community did not converge in its functional composition. The weak differences observed among the macroinvertebrates from ponds of different ages suggested that limiting environmental conditions prevented the organisms from evolving to a more structured community.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by a research and assistance agreement between Endesa S.A and the Pyrenean Institute of Ecology-CSIC. The first author was the recipient of a Ph.D. grant from the Government of Aragón (Spain). The authors are grateful to the people working at the Endesa mines of Teruel, and to our fieldwork assistants. Finally, the authors would like to thank to Dr. Jeffries, and the other anonymous reviewer for their helpful comments on a previous version of this manuscript.

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  1. Pyrenean Institute of Ecology, CSIC, Avda. Montañana 1005, 50059, Zaragoza, Spain

    Leticia Miguel-Chinchilla & Francisco A. Comín

  2. Faculty of Sciences, Institute of Aquatic Ecology, University of Girona, 17071, Girona, Spain

    Dani Boix & Stéphanie Gascón

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  1. Leticia Miguel-Chinchilla
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  2. Dani Boix
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Correspondence to Leticia Miguel-Chinchilla.

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Miguel-Chinchilla, L., Boix, D., Gascón, S. et al. Taxonomic and functional successional patterns in macroinvertebrates related to flying dispersal abilities: a case study from isolated manmade ponds at reclaimed opencast coal mines. Hydrobiologia 732, 111–122 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-014-1851-3

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