distance decay of similarity in neotropical diatom communities距离衰减热带硅藻群落的相似性.pdfVIP

Distance Decay of Similarity in Neotropical Diatom Communities 1,2 2 1 3 4 Carlos E. Wetzel *, Denise de C. Bicudo , Luc Ector , Eduardo A. Lobo , Janne Soininen , Victor L. Landeiro5, Luis M. Bini5 ´ ˆ ˜ 1 Nucleo de Ecologia, Instituto de Botanica, Sao Paulo, SP, Brazil, 2 Department of Environment and Agro-Biotechnologies, Public Research Centre - Gabriel Lippmann, Belvaux, Luxembourg, 3 Laboratory of Limnology, Universidade de Santa Cruz do Sul, Santa Cruz do Sul, RS, Brazil, 4 Department of Geosciences and Geography, ˆ ´ ´ ˆ University of Helsinki, Finland, 5 Departamento de Ecologia,Instituto de Ciencias Biologicas, Universidade Federal de Goias, Goiania, GO, Brazil Abstract Background: The regression of similarity against distance unites several ecological phenomena, and thus provides a highly useful approach for illustrating the spatial turnover across sites. Our aim was to test whether the rates of decay in community similarity differ between diatom growth forms suggested to show different dispersal ability. We hypothesized that the diatom group with lower dispersal ability (i.e. periphyton) would show higher distance decay rates than a group with higher dispersal ability (i.e. plankton). Methods/Principal findings: Periphyton and phytoplankton samples were gathered at sites distributed over an area of approximately 800 km length in the Negro River, Amazon basin, Brazil, South America (3u089000S; 59u549300W). Distance decay relationships were then estimated using distance-based regressions, and the coefficients