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Paleolimnological records reveal biotic homogenization driven by eutrophication in tropical reservoirs

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Abstract

Biodiversity changes in response to eutrophication, climate variability and species invasions. These pressures have been shown to reduce community heterogeneity at various scales; however, how productivity drives homogenization patterns in a community of primary producers, such as diatoms, has not been studied. Using a dataset with good temporal resolution, obtained from cores collected from seven tropical reservoirs, we evaluated patterns of spatial and temporal homogenization, i.e. the trends in temporal α-diversity and spatial β-diversity (change in community composition), of diatom assemblages over the past 60–100 years. The paleolimnological records allowed us to study biodiversity trends since the initial community (reservoir construction) in those systems with low anthropogenic impact and also those undergoing eutrophication. No clear trend of spatial β-diversity change over time was found when all reservoirs were analyzed together. However, when only eutrophic reservoirs were considered, a marked decrease in the spatial β-diversity occurred, suggesting that eutrophication leads to homogenization of the diatom assemblage. These findings were reinforced by the lack of change in β-diversity when the age of the reservoirs was standardized, indicating that the reservoirs’ ontogeny did not influence the spatial β-diversity trend and β-diversity did not increase even in the reservoirs with low anthropogenic impact. In addition, the results showed a decrease of α-diversity over time for almost all the eutrophic reservoirs, as well as a decrease in the total species pool for the reservoirs, although periphytic diatoms may be favored by the appearance and sometimes mass development of floating macrophytes in warm, shallow eutrophic reservoirs. This study supports the role of eutrophication as one of the main drivers of diatom assemblage homogenization in tropical reservoirs, with a significant loss of species over time.

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Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge Janet Reid for improvement of the English language and Anne Mette Poulsen for valuable editorial comments. This study was carried out within the framework of the AcquaSed project, supported by FAPESP (Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo, No. 2009/53898–9) and was undertaken as part of S.W. Ph.D. thesis (FAPESP, No. 2012/25366-5 and CNPq No. 140550/2012-7) at the Institute of Botany (São Paulo, Brazil). L.F. and S.C.B. also thank FAPESP (08/57139-2 and 04/08675). D.C.B thanks CNPq (Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico, No. 310404/2016-9). A.A. Padial also acknowledges CNPq for continuous research grants. E.J. was supported by the MARS project (Managing Aquatic ecosystems and water Resources under multiple Stress) funded under the 7th EU Framework Programme, Theme 6 (Environment including Climate Change), Contract No. 603378 (http://www.mars-project.eu).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Ecologia, Instituto de Botânica, Av. Miguel Stefano 3687, São Paulo, SP, 04301-902, Brazil

    Simone Wengrat & Denise C. Bicudo

  2. Laboratório de Análise e Síntese em Biodiversidade, Departamento de Botânica, Programa de Pós-graduação em Ecologia e Conservação, Universidade Federal do Paraná, cp 19031, Curitiba, PR, CEP 81531-990, Brazil

    Andre A. Padial

  3. Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University, Vejlsøvej 25, 8600, Silkeborg, Denmark

    Erik Jeppesen & Thomas A. Davidson

  4. Arctic Research Centre (ARC), Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark

    Erik Jeppesen & Thomas A. Davidson

  5. Sino-Danish Centre for Education and Research (SDC), Beijing, China

    Erik Jeppesen

  6. Departamento de Geoquímica, Universidade Federal Fluminense, Outeiro São João Baptista s/n. Niterói, Niterói, RJ, Brazil

    Luciane Fontana

  7. Institute of Geosystems and Bioindication, Technische Universität Braunschweig, Langer Kamp 19c, D-38106, Braunschweig, Germany

    Sandra Costa-Böddeker

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  1. Simone Wengrat
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Wengrat, S., Padial, A.A., Jeppesen, E. et al. Paleolimnological records reveal biotic homogenization driven by eutrophication in tropical reservoirs. J Paleolimnol 60, 299–309 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10933-017-9997-4

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