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Taxonomic distinctness indices for discriminating patterns in freshwater rotifer assemblages

  • ROTIFERA XIV
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Abstract

Taxonomic distinctness indices measure the taxonomic relatedness among species and have been used for environmental assessment to detect disturbed habitats. This is the first application of the Average Taxonomic Distinctness (Δ+) and Variance in Taxonomic Distinctness (Λ+) indices to the presence/absence data of rotifer communities to examine their sensitiveness in discriminating perturbed environments. The 26 Greek lakes studied spanned a wide range of morphological and physical–chemical characteristics. Δ+ was significantly correlated (P < 0.05) with maximum depth, salinity and trophic state, while Λ+ was correlated only with salinity. The index Δ+ identified lakes characterized by periods of increased salinity. Communities in these lakes were less diverse, consisting of more closely related species as seen by the reduced number of families than other lakes with similar species richness. Lakes identified by Λ+ had a higher community distinctness than expected due to the overrepresentation of the family Brachionidae; they were also characterized by periods of water-level fluctuations. Both indices were unaffected by sampling effort in terms of number of species and sampling visits; whereas Shannon diversity index (H′) was correlated to species number. Also, based on the randomization test, the taxonomic distinctness indices differentiated lakes anthropogenically disturbed based on the expected patterns of diversity of the area.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful for the support staff of the Greek Biotope/Wetland Center who collected the samples from 2012 onwards within the framework of the National Monitoring Network of Water Quality and Quantity (defined by the Common Ministerial Decree 140384/2011) and M. Moustaka-Gouni, M. Katsiapi and M. H. Zarfdjian who supported our analyses by supplying unpublished data. We gratefully acknowledge the efforts of two anonymous reviewers and D. Fontaneto whose valuable suggestions were extremely helpful to finally shape the manuscript.

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  1. Department of Zoology, School of Biology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 541 24, Thessaloniki, Greece

    Georgia Stamou, Chrysoula Polyzou, Aikaterini Karagianni & Evangelia Michaloudi

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  1. Georgia Stamou
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  2. Chrysoula Polyzou
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  3. Aikaterini Karagianni
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Correspondence to Evangelia Michaloudi.

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Guest editors: M. Devetter, D. Fontaneto, C. D. Jersabek, D. B. Mark Welch, L. May & E. J. Walsh / Evolving rotifers, evolving science

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Stamou, G., Polyzou, C., Karagianni, A. et al. Taxonomic distinctness indices for discriminating patterns in freshwater rotifer assemblages. Hydrobiologia 796, 319–331 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-016-2894-4

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