| Abstract | The metacommunity concept incorporates spatial dynamics into community ecology, shedding light on how local and regional processes interact in structuring ecological communities, and to which measure they are deterministic or stochastic. We reviewed metacommunity studies on freshwater meiobenthos published since 2004, when the main principles of metacommunity theory were conceptualized. The studies (together 19) were observational, focused mainly on ostracods, and rarely on rotifers and nematodes. In accordance with general expectations, the prevalent structuring force was species sorting. Ostracods showed more dispersal limitations than nematodes and rotifers, and there was very little support for dispersal surplus. We discussed the role of body size, dispersal mode, and attachment to sediment for the meiofauna dispersal. Effects of metacommunity context (habitat connectivity, spatial extent, and environmental heterogeneity), study design (e.g., sample size), and statistical approach could not be sufficiently disentangled due to the low number of studies. Local stochasticity, consistent with neutral theory and patch dynamics, was indicated for taxa with weak specialization and metacommunities in small habitats. Our understanding of meiofaunal metacommunities is only fragmentary and it would highly benefit from direct comparisons of taxa with different species traits and between different spatial scales, and studies incorporating temporal dynamics and hypothesis-driven experiments. |
| Text | 417325 2020 10.1007/s10750 020 04185 2 metacommunity Meiofauna as a model to test paradigms of ecological metacommunity theory Birgit Gansfort, Diego Fontaneto, Marie Zhai Department Animal Ecology, Bielefeld University, Konsequenz 45, 33615, Bielefeld, Germany; Water Research Institute, National Research Council of Italy, Verbania Pallanza, 28922, Italy; Department Botany and Zoology, Masaryk University, Kotla ska 2, Brno, 61137, Czech Republic The metacommunity concept incorporates spatial dynamics into community ecology, shedding light on how local and regional processes interact in structuring ecological communities, and to which measure they are deterministic or stochastic. We reviewed metacommunity studies on freshwater meiobenthos published since 2004, when the main principles of metacommunity theory were conceptualized. The studies together 19 were observational, focused mainly on ostracods, and rarely on rotifers and nematodes. In accordance with general expectations, the prevalent structuring force was species sorting. Ostracods showed more dispersal limitations than nematodes and rotifers, and there was very little support for dispersal surplus. We discussed the role of body size, dispersal mode, and attachment to sediment for the meiofauna dispersal. Effects of metacommunity context habitat connectivity, spatial extent, and environmental heterogeneity , study design e.g., sample size , and statistical approach could not be sufficiently disentangled due to the low number of studies. Local stochasticity, consistent with neutral theory and patch dynamics, was indicated for taxa with weak specialization and metacommunities in small habitats. Our understanding of meiofaunal metacommunities is only fragmentary and it would highly benefit from direct comparisons of taxa with different species traits and between different spatial scales, and studies incorporating temporal dynamics and hypothesis driven experiments. Published version https //link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10750 020 04185 2 Articolo in rivista Kluwer 1573 5117 Hydrobiologia Dordr., Online Hydrobiologia Dordr., Online Hydrobiologia Dordr., Online Hydrobiologia. Dordr., Online Hydrobiologia Dordrecht Dordr., Online Hydrobiologia Boston Dordr., Online Hydrobiologia London Dordr., Online diego.fontaneto FONTANETO DIEGO |
