Abstract
1. Community concordance measures the level of association between the compositional patterns
shown by two groups of organisms. If strong community concordance occurs, one group could be
used as a surrogate for another in conservation planning and biodiversity monitoring. In this
study, we evaluated the variability in the strength of community concordance, the likely
mechanisms underlying community concordance and the degree to which one community can
predict another in a set of Neotropical floodplain lakes (Upper Parana´ River floodplain, Brazil).
2. We used a data set including six aquatic communities: fish, macrophytes, benthic macroinvertebrates,
zooplankton, phytoplankton and periphyton. We used Mantel and PROTEST
approaches to evaluate the levels of community concordance in up to four sampling periods. Also,
we used partial Mantel test and information about biotic interactions to investigate reasons for
observed patterns of concordance. Finally, we used co-correspondence analysis to evaluate the
performance of one taxonomic group in predicting the structures of other communities.
3. The levels of community concordance varied over time for almost all cross-taxa comparisons.
Concordance between phytoplankton and periphyton probably resulted from similar responses to
environmental gradients, whereas other patterns of concordance were likely generated by
interactions among groups. However, the levels of predictability were low, and no particular
taxonomic group significantly predicted all other groups.
4. The low and temporally variable levels of community concordance cast doubts on the use of
surrogate groups for biodiversity management in Neotropical floodplains.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 2411-2423 |
Journal | Freshwater Biology |
Volume | 57 |
Issue number | 11 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2012 |
Keywords
- international