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Factors that influence the beta-diversity of spider communities in northwestern Argentinean Grasslands

Beta-diversity, defined as spatial replacement in species composition, is crucial to the understanding of how local communities assemble. These changes can be driven by environmental or geographic factors (such as geographic distance), or a combination of the two. Spiders have been shown to be good...

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Autores principales: Rodriguez-Artigas, Sandra M., Ballester, Rodrigo, Corronca, Jose A.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: PeerJ Inc. 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4846805/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27123380
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.1946
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author Rodriguez-Artigas, Sandra M.
Ballester, Rodrigo
Corronca, Jose A.
author_facet Rodriguez-Artigas, Sandra M.
Ballester, Rodrigo
Corronca, Jose A.
author_sort Rodriguez-Artigas, Sandra M.
collection PubMed
description Beta-diversity, defined as spatial replacement in species composition, is crucial to the understanding of how local communities assemble. These changes can be driven by environmental or geographic factors (such as geographic distance), or a combination of the two. Spiders have been shown to be good indicators of environmental quality. Accordingly, spiders are used in this work as model taxa to establish whether there is a decrease in community similarity that corresponds to geographic distance in the grasslands of the Campos & Malezales ecoregion (Corrientes). Furthermore, the influence of climactic factors and local vegetation heterogeneity (environmental factors) on assemblage composition was evaluated. Finally, this study evaluated whether the differential dispersal capacity of spider families is a factor that influences their community structure at a regional scale. Spiders were collected with a G-Vac from vegetation in six grassland sites in the Campos & Malezales ecoregion that were separated by a minimum of 13 km. With this data, the impact of alpha-diversity and different environmental variables on the beta-diversity of spider communities was analysed. Likewise, the importance of species replacement and nesting on beta-diversity and their contribution to the regional diversity of spider families with different dispersion capacities was evaluated. The regional and site-specific inventories obtained were complete. The similarity between spider communities declined as the geographic distance between sites increased. Environmental variables also influenced community composition; stochastic events and abiotic forces were the principal intervening factors in assembly structure. The differential dispersal capacity of spider groups also influenced community structure at a regional scale. The regional beta-diversity, as well as species replacement, was greater in high and intermediate vagility spiders; while nesting was greater in spiders with low dispersion capacity. Geographic distance, among other factors (climate, and active and passive dispersion capacity), explains assembly structure and the decrease spider community similarity between geographically distant sites. Spiders with the highest dispersal capacity showed greater species replacement. This may be due to the discontinuity (both natural and anthropic) of the grasslands in this ecoregion, which limits the dispersal capacity of these spiders, and their close dependence on microhabitats. The dispersal capacity of the least vagile spiders is limited by geographic distance and biotic factors, such as competition, which could explain the nesting observed between their communities.
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spelling pubmed-48468052016-04-27 Factors that influence the beta-diversity of spider communities in northwestern Argentinean Grasslands Rodriguez-Artigas, Sandra M. Ballester, Rodrigo Corronca, Jose A. PeerJ Biodiversity Beta-diversity, defined as spatial replacement in species composition, is crucial to the understanding of how local communities assemble. These changes can be driven by environmental or geographic factors (such as geographic distance), or a combination of the two. Spiders have been shown to be good indicators of environmental quality. Accordingly, spiders are used in this work as model taxa to establish whether there is a decrease in community similarity that corresponds to geographic distance in the grasslands of the Campos & Malezales ecoregion (Corrientes). Furthermore, the influence of climactic factors and local vegetation heterogeneity (environmental factors) on assemblage composition was evaluated. Finally, this study evaluated whether the differential dispersal capacity of spider families is a factor that influences their community structure at a regional scale. Spiders were collected with a G-Vac from vegetation in six grassland sites in the Campos & Malezales ecoregion that were separated by a minimum of 13 km. With this data, the impact of alpha-diversity and different environmental variables on the beta-diversity of spider communities was analysed. Likewise, the importance of species replacement and nesting on beta-diversity and their contribution to the regional diversity of spider families with different dispersion capacities was evaluated. The regional and site-specific inventories obtained were complete. The similarity between spider communities declined as the geographic distance between sites increased. Environmental variables also influenced community composition; stochastic events and abiotic forces were the principal intervening factors in assembly structure. The differential dispersal capacity of spider groups also influenced community structure at a regional scale. The regional beta-diversity, as well as species replacement, was greater in high and intermediate vagility spiders; while nesting was greater in spiders with low dispersion capacity. Geographic distance, among other factors (climate, and active and passive dispersion capacity), explains assembly structure and the decrease spider community similarity between geographically distant sites. Spiders with the highest dispersal capacity showed greater species replacement. This may be due to the discontinuity (both natural and anthropic) of the grasslands in this ecoregion, which limits the dispersal capacity of these spiders, and their close dependence on microhabitats. The dispersal capacity of the least vagile spiders is limited by geographic distance and biotic factors, such as competition, which could explain the nesting observed between their communities. PeerJ Inc. 2016-04-21 /pmc/articles/PMC4846805/ /pubmed/27123380 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.1946 Text en ©2016 Rodriguez-Artigas et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
spellingShingle Biodiversity
Rodriguez-Artigas, Sandra M.
Ballester, Rodrigo
Corronca, Jose A.
Factors that influence the beta-diversity of spider communities in northwestern Argentinean Grasslands
title Factors that influence the beta-diversity of spider communities in northwestern Argentinean Grasslands
title_full Factors that influence the beta-diversity of spider communities in northwestern Argentinean Grasslands
title_fullStr Factors that influence the beta-diversity of spider communities in northwestern Argentinean Grasslands
title_full_unstemmed Factors that influence the beta-diversity of spider communities in northwestern Argentinean Grasslands
title_short Factors that influence the beta-diversity of spider communities in northwestern Argentinean Grasslands
title_sort factors that influence the beta-diversity of spider communities in northwestern argentinean grasslands
topic Biodiversity
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4846805/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27123380
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.1946
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