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Variance partitioning of deconstructed periphyton communities: does the use of biological traits matter?

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Abstract

The use of species traits offers a promising approach to the understanding of the main processes underlying metacommunity patterns. We analyzed samples of periphytic algae in 30 environments of the Upper Paraná River floodplain in southeastern Brazil, to test the hypotheses that variation in species composition of algal groups with low dispersal abilities would be mainly explained by spatial variables; on the other hand, algal groups with higher dispersal abilities would be better explained by environmental variables. The variation in community structure was mainly correlated with environmental variables. This result is in line with a growing body of evidence indicating a predominant role of species-sorting processes. The more-refined prediction that the spatial variables would gradually become more important across a gradient of adherence or size was, however, not supported by our analyses. Also, the large unexplained variation suggested that these periphytic communities were assembled by idiosyncratic events, or that other variables that are often neglected in studies of aquatic metacommunities needed to be included.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Jaime Luiz Lopes Pereira for designing the map, and CAPES for granting a scholarship to the first author. We would like to thank two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on the manuscript. This study was supported by the “Long-Term Ecological Research” (LTER) program of CNPq. Liliana Rodrigues and Luis Mauricio Bini have been supported by CNPq productivity grants.

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  1. Departamento de Biologia, Nupélia, Universidade Estadual de Maringá, Maringá, Paraná, Brazil

    Vanessa M. Algarte & Liliana Rodrigues

  2. Departamento de Botânica e Ecologia, Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso, Cuiabá, Mato Grosso, Brazil

    Victor L. Landeiro

  3. Departamento de Ecologia, Universidade Estadual Paulista, Rio Claro, São Paulo, Brazil

    Tadeu Siqueira

  4. Departamento de Ecologia, Universidade Federal de Goiás, Goiânia, Goiás, Brazil

    Luis Mauricio Bini

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  1. Vanessa M. Algarte
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Algarte, V.M., Rodrigues, L., Landeiro, V.L. et al. Variance partitioning of deconstructed periphyton communities: does the use of biological traits matter?. Hydrobiologia 722, 279–290 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-013-1711-6

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