The importance of the spatial heterogeneity for the structuring of macroinvertebrates in spring fens
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| Year of publication | 2019 |
| Type | Conference abstract |
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| Description | During the past decades, ecologists conceptualized several well-known theories assuming different effect of local environment and species dispersal ability on the structuring composition of metacommunities (i.e. patch-dynamic model, neutral model, species sorting, and mass-effect). However, the role of dispersal and environmental processes vary among metacommunities as well as among spatial scales. For instance, the stream ecologists suppose generally the weaker effect of dispersal on the stream biota than on lentic one, and strong environmental filtering in headwater biotopes. The special headwater biotopes are spring fens occurring in the Western Carpathians. These unique systems host specific macroinvertebrate assemblages (i.e. spring specialists) coexisting at a single site within a relatively small area. High ?-diversity of the spring fens is probably caused by a spatial distribution of the species across patches with variable environmental characteristics within sites, but the role of the spatial heterogeneity for the structuring spring fen macroinvertebrates on the small-scale was not studied so far. Similar to natural spring fens, the high species richness was found at post-mining calcareous seepages that can provide surrogate habitats for specific biota of vulnerable spring fens. However, these systems are relatively young and dynamic, probably with higher role of environmental filtering then spatial heterogeneity for the structuring benthic assemblages. We aimed to explore the role of the spatial heterogeneity and environmental filtering for the coexistence of benthic invertebrate assemblages on the small scale in natural calcareous spring fens and post-mining seepage. |
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