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Blowin’ in the wind: Wind directionality affects wetland invertebrate metacommunities in Patagonia
Author(s) -
Epele Luis Beltrán,
Dos Santos Daniel Andrés,
Sarremejane Romain,
Grech Marta Gladys,
Macchi Pablo Antonio,
Manzo Luz María,
Miserendino María Laura,
Bonada Núria,
CañedoArgüelles Miguel
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
global ecology and biogeography
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.164
H-Index - 152
eISSN - 1466-8238
pISSN - 1466-822X
DOI - 10.1111/geb.13294
Subject(s) - nestedness , metacommunity , invertebrate , ecology , wetland , beta diversity , biological dispersal , environmental science , wind direction , community structure , wind speed , community , generalized additive model , species richness , geography , biology , habitat , mathematics , statistics , population , demography , sociology , meteorology
Aim To assess the relative importance of wind intensity and direction in explaining wetland invertebrate metacommunity organization. Location Seventy‐eight wetland ponds in Patagonia (Argentina) covering a study area of 3.5 × 10 5 km 2 . Time period Ponds were sampled once between 2006 and 2014. Major taxa studied One hundred and fifty‐eight taxa of wetland aquatic invertebrates. Methods We generated two beta diversity matrices (based on flying and non‐flying invertebrates) and six predictor matrices, including three environmental distance matrices, a topographic distance between ponds, and two wind pairwise matrices differing in wind speed. Using Moran spectral randomization of Mantel (MSR‐Mantel) tests (which account for spatial autocorrelation), we assessed the relationship between the response and the predictor matrices. We used a network‐constrained version of the nestedness metric based on overlap and decreasing fill (NODF), to assess if wind anisotropy (i.e., direction‐dependent) affected community nestedness among ponds. Results Flying dispersers’ dissimilarity was significantly explained by environmental variables, whereas non‐flying invertebrates’ dissimilarity was not significantly explained by any of the distances tested. When wind direction was ignored, wind speed had a negligible effect on both types of communities, whereas when it was considered a consistent nested pattern emerged, with the eastern ponds (downwind) communities being subsets of those from the western ponds (upwind). Main conclusions We found that the invertebrate communities were mainly assembled by a combination of environmental factors and wind directionality, although this depended on the dispersal ability of the organisms.