Research
| Title： | The ecological niche and terrestrial environment jointly influence the altitudinal pattern of aquatic biodiversity |
|---|---|
| First author： | Liu, Shuoran; Li, Xianfu; Tan, Lu; Fornacca, Davide; Fang, Yihao; Zhu, Lin; Rao, Caihong; Cao, Yindi; Huang, Jimin; Ren, Guopeng; Cai, Qinghua; Xiao, Wen |
| Journal： | SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT |
| Years： | 2021 |
| DOI： | 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.149404 |
| Abstract： | The altitudinal distribution of biodiversity in alpine ecosystems has captured academic attention, especially in streams because of their sensitivity to climate change. In the past years, research mainly focused on understand -ing the role played by alpine streams' internal factors such as aquatic environmental variables, as well as physical and hydrological conditions, on the shaping of benthic macroinvertebrate communities. More recently, external factors such as terrestrial environments were included in analyses worldwide. In particular, the inherent proper -ties constituting the ecological niche of specific species were considered as factors regulating dispersal and influencing community construction. The objective of this study was to reveal the distribution pattern and the driving factors regulating aquatic biodiversity in alpine streams. We hypothesized that the altitudinal distribution of aquatic macroinvertebrates could be explained by the interaction of the aquatic environment with both spe-cies' ecological niche and the terrestrial environment surrounding their habitat, and that rare species display a more pronounced pattern than widespread dominant species. To test these hypotheses, samples were collected from two alpine streams situated on opposite slopes of Biluo Snow Mountain in Yunnan Province, China. Results of statistical analyses showed poor explanatory power from aquatic environmental factors, while the differences in vegetation type and the ecological niche of the species played an important role in determining the distribution pattern of aquatic biodiversity. Furthermore, we found that the altitudinal distribution pattern of aquatic biodi-versity exhibits a bimodal type, with rare species fitting the bimodal peaks. These findings call for a better inclu-sion and further investigation on the effects of the terrestrial environment on aquatic ecosystems. (c) 2021 Published by Elsevier B.V. |
