Identifying environmental drivers of benthic diatom diversity: the case of Mediterranean mountain ponds

Saúl Blanco; Adriana Olenici; Fernando Ortega; Francisco Jiménez-Gómez; Francisco Guerrero

doi:10.7717/peerj.8825

Identifying environmental drivers of benthic diatom diversity: the case of Mediterranean mountain ponds

PeerJ. 2020 Mar 24:8:e8825. doi: 10.7717/peerj.8825. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Saúl Blanco¹, Adriana Olenici², Fernando Ortega³, Francisco Jiménez-Gómez^{3

4}, Francisco Guerrero^{3

4}

Affiliations

¹ Departamento de Biodiversidad y Gestión Ambiental, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas y Ambientales, Universidad de León, Leon, Spain.
² Babes-Bolyai University, Faculty of Environmental Science and Engineering, Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
³ Departamento de Biología Animal, Biología Vegetal y Ecología, Universidad de Jaén, Jaén, Spain.
⁴ Centro de Estudios Avanzados en Ciencias de la Tierra, Jaén, Spain.

Abstract

This study aims at elucidating the environmental factors controlling benthic diatom diversity and uniqueness in Mediterranean mountain ponds. Samples of periphytic diatoms were collected in 45 ponds in Andalusia, south of Spain, and analysed by standard methods. Data analysis reveals that diatom diversity is mainly controlled by elevation and hydroperiod. Contrary to the usual findings in the literature, the highest scores on Shannon's diversity index were found in high-elevation temporary ponds, but this effect is hidden by lake clustering in the analysed dataset. Significant distance-decay similarity (DDS) trends were detected in the analysis of floristic composition among the samples, stressing the importance of spatial factors that may override the effect of other abiotic factors. These findings highlight the role of isolation and dispersal limitation in the configuration of the biogeographical patterns of benthic diatoms.

Keywords: Dispersal; Distance-decay; Elevation; Hydroperiod; Isolation; Uniqueness.

Associated data

figshare/10.6084/m9.figshare.11356262)

Grants and funding

This work is part of the project “Andalusian mountain wetlands: inventory, typologies and conservation” which is funded by the Center for Advanced Studies in Earth Sciences (CEACTierra) at the University of Jaén. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.