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Pondscape or waterscape? The effect on the diversity of dispersal along different freshwater ecosystems

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Abstract

Dispersal is a main determinant of community assembly. Landscape configurations of rivers, lakes, or ponds are often independently considered in this framework. However, these systems share species conforming to a waterscape with different environments coupled by dispersal. While empirical results support a main role of this coupling on biodiversity organization, it is difficult to assess its importance at large geographic scales. Using a theoretical approach, we quantified the potential role of dispersal through different freshwater ecosystems of the United Kingdom and Ireland on biogeographic diversity patterns. We implemented a coalescent model considering 11,131 communities connected by distance-dependent dispersal and with species that have different performances for recruitment in three different aquatic habitats. Biogeographic diversity patterns were estimated for each habitat alone or for the whole waterscape combining ephemeral, temporal, and permanent waters. The results indicated that the coupling between different types of environments fostered local diversity, in a magnitude that increased from the ephemeral to permanent waters and from poorer to richer communities. Furthermore, a strong spatial structure in the potential effect of dispersal among different freshwater environments was observed, indicating that freshwater biogeography was likely determined by the connection among freshwater ecosystems to a larger extent than previously thought.

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Acknowledgments

This study was part of the H2020 EU-funded project PONDERFUL (no. 869296). AIB was supported by CSIC I+D 2020 UDELAR and FCE_1_2021_1_167009. MA and AIB are grateful for the support provided by the CSIC groups (ID 657725) and acknowledge the support of Programa de Desarrollo de las Ciencias Básicas (PEDECIBA) and Agencia Nacional de Investigación e Innovación (ANII), Uruguay. DC-M was supported by the H2020 EU-funded projects AQUACOSM & AQUACOSM-plus (no. 731065 & 871081) and the MECODISPER project (CTM2017-89295-P) funded by the Spanish Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad (MINECO)—Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI) and co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). We specially thanks the thoughtful caveats from reviewers that helped to better frame our contribution, its extrapolation to alternative scenarios, as well as, its limits.

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Funding was provided by Horizon 2020 Framework Programme (Grant Number 869296).

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Author notes

  1. Ana Inés Borthagaray and David Cunillera-Montcusí have equal authorship to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centro Universitario Regional Este (CURE), Universidad de la República, Montevideo, Uruguay

    Ana Inés Borthagaray, David Cunillera-Montcusí & Matías Arim

  2. FEHM-Lab, Section of Ecology, Department of Evolutionary Biology, Ecology and Environmental Sciences, University of Barcelona, Diagonal, 643, 08028, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain

    David Cunillera-Montcusí

  3. LAGP-Flora and Vegetation, Institut of the Environment, University of Girona, Girona, Catalonia, Spain

    Jordi Bou

  4. Freshwater Habitats Trust, Bury Knowle House, Headington, Oxford, OX3 9HY, UK

    Jeremy Biggs

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Borthagaray, A.I., Cunillera-Montcusí, D., Bou, J. et al. Pondscape or waterscape? The effect on the diversity of dispersal along different freshwater ecosystems. Hydrobiologia 850, 3211–3223 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-022-05123-0

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