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Importance of space and the local environment for linking local and regional abundances of microbes

Ostman, Orjan ; Drakare, Stina ; Kritzberg, Emma LU ; Langenheder, Silke ; Logue, Jurg B. and Lindstrom, Eva S. (2012) In Aquatic Microbial Ecology 67(1). p.35-158
Abstract
It is frequently observed that the local relative abundances of aquatic microbial taxa are correlated with their average relative abundance at the regional scale, which results in the composition of different communities being more similar than expected by chance or invariant. The degree to which communities within a region match the regional average community is variable and likely depends on several different mechanisms that control the process of microbial community assembly. Here, we show that environmental variables were associated with the community specific degree of regional invariance in 9 of 10 datasets of microbial communities in aquatic systems, being the main set of variables explaining differences in regional invariance in 5... (More)
It is frequently observed that the local relative abundances of aquatic microbial taxa are correlated with their average relative abundance at the regional scale, which results in the composition of different communities being more similar than expected by chance or invariant. The degree to which communities within a region match the regional average community is variable and likely depends on several different mechanisms that control the process of microbial community assembly. Here, we show that environmental variables were associated with the community specific degree of regional invariance in 9 of 10 datasets of microbial communities in aquatic systems, being the main set of variables explaining differences in regional invariance in 5 of them. This indicates that variation in local environmental conditions across a region reduces the degree of regional invariance amongst communities. Spatial distances between communities were not related to the degrees of regional invariance, but in 7 of the datasets, regional invariance differed among different parts of the regions, particularly for phytoplankton communities. This suggests an influence of spatial or historical processes on the community specific degree of regional invariance. We conclude that both local environmental conditions and spatial/historical processes cause between-site differences in the degree of invariance between local and regional abundances in aquatic microbial metacommunities. We argue that studies of regional invariance can be an important complement to other statistical methods due to its propensity to detect variation in stochastic processes along gradients. (Less)
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author
; ; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Metacommunities, Regional abundances, Invariance, Species sorting, Composition, Stochasticity
in
Aquatic Microbial Ecology
volume
67
issue
1
pages
35 - 158
publisher
Inter-Research
external identifiers
  • wos:000308651800004
  • scopus:84866047830
ISSN
0948-3055
DOI
10.3354/ame01581
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
bad0b175-65f6-4415-8f31-93e269e012f0 (old id 3135841)
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 14:02:31
date last changed
2022-01-27 22:33:28
@article{bad0b175-65f6-4415-8f31-93e269e012f0,
  abstract     = {{It is frequently observed that the local relative abundances of aquatic microbial taxa are correlated with their average relative abundance at the regional scale, which results in the composition of different communities being more similar than expected by chance or invariant. The degree to which communities within a region match the regional average community is variable and likely depends on several different mechanisms that control the process of microbial community assembly. Here, we show that environmental variables were associated with the community specific degree of regional invariance in 9 of 10 datasets of microbial communities in aquatic systems, being the main set of variables explaining differences in regional invariance in 5 of them. This indicates that variation in local environmental conditions across a region reduces the degree of regional invariance amongst communities. Spatial distances between communities were not related to the degrees of regional invariance, but in 7 of the datasets, regional invariance differed among different parts of the regions, particularly for phytoplankton communities. This suggests an influence of spatial or historical processes on the community specific degree of regional invariance. We conclude that both local environmental conditions and spatial/historical processes cause between-site differences in the degree of invariance between local and regional abundances in aquatic microbial metacommunities. We argue that studies of regional invariance can be an important complement to other statistical methods due to its propensity to detect variation in stochastic processes along gradients.}},
  author       = {{Ostman, Orjan and Drakare, Stina and Kritzberg, Emma and Langenheder, Silke and Logue, Jurg B. and Lindstrom, Eva S.}},
  issn         = {{0948-3055}},
  keywords     = {{Metacommunities; Regional abundances; Invariance; Species sorting; Composition; Stochasticity}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{1}},
  pages        = {{35--158}},
  publisher    = {{Inter-Research}},
  series       = {{Aquatic Microbial Ecology}},
  title        = {{Importance of space and the local environment for linking local and regional abundances of microbes}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.3354/ame01581}},
  doi          = {{10.3354/ame01581}},
  volume       = {{67}},
  year         = {{2012}},
}