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Aim Understanding the variation in community composition and species abundances (i.e., β‐diversity) is at the heart of community ecology. A common approach to examine β‐diversity is to evaluate directional variation in community composition by measuring the decay in the similarity among pairs of communities along spatial or environmental distance. We provide the first global synthesis of taxonomic and functional distance decay along spatial and environmental distance by analysing 148 datasets comprising different types of organisms and environments. Location Global. Time period 1990 to present. Major taxa studied From diatoms to mammals. Method We measured the strength of the decay using ranked Mantel tests (Mantel r) and the rate of distance decay as the slope of an exponential fit using generalized linear models. We used null models to test whether functional similarity decays faster or slower than expected given the taxonomic decay along the spatial and environmental distance. We also unveiled the factors driving the rate of decay across the datasets, including latitude, spatial extent, realm and organismal features. Results Taxonomic distance decay was stronger than functional distance decay along both spatial and environmental distance. Functional distance decay was random given the taxonomic distance decay. The rate of taxonomic and functional spatial distance decay was fastest in the datasets from mid‐latitudes. Overall, datasets covering larger spatial extents showed a lower rate of decay along spatial distance but a higher rate of decay along environmental distance. Marine ecosystems had the slowest rate of decay along environmental distances. Main conclusions In general, taxonomic distance decay is a useful tool for biogeographical research because it reflects dispersal‐related factors in addition to species responses to climatic and environmental variables. Moreover, functional distance decay might be a cost‐effective option for investigating community changes in heterogeneous environments.

Recent studies from temperate lakes indicate that eutrophic systems tend to emit less carbon dioxide (CO2) and bury more organic carbon (OC) than oligotrophic ones, rendering them CO2 sinks in some cases. However, the scarcity of data from tropical systems is critical for a complete understanding of the interplay between eutrophication and aquatic carbon (C) fluxes in warm waters. We test the hypothesis that a warm eutrophic system is a source of both CO2 and CH4 to the atmosphere, and that atmospheric emissions are larger than the burial of OC in sediments. This hypothesis was based on the following assumptions: (i) OC mineralization rates are high in warm water systems, so that water column CO2 production overrides the high C uptake by primary producers, and (ii) increasing trophic status creates favorable conditions for CH4 production. We measured water-air and sediment-water CO2 fluxes, CH4 diffusion, ebullition and oxidation, net ecosystem production (NEP) and sediment OC burial during the dry season in a eutrophic reservoir in the semiarid northeastern Brazil. The reservoir was stratified during daytime and mixed during nighttime. In spite of the high rates of primary production (4858 ± 934 mg C m-2 d-1), net heterotrophy was prevalent due to high ecosystem respiration (5209 ± 992 mg C m-2 d-1). Consequently, the reservoir was a source of atmospheric CO2 (518 ± 182 mg C m-2 d-1). In addition, the reservoir was a source of ebullitive (17 ± 10 mg C m-2 d-1) and diffusive CH4 (11 ± 6 mg C m-2 d-1). OC sedimentation was high (1162 mg C m-2 d-1), but our results suggest that the majority of it is mineralized to CO2 (722 ± 182 mg C m-2 d-1) rather than buried as OC (440 mg C m-2 d-1). Although temporally resolved data would render our findings more conclusive, our results suggest that despite being a primary production and OC burial hotspot, the tropical eutrophic system studied here was a stronger CO2 and CH4 source than a C sink, mainly because of high rates of OC mineralization in the water column and sediments.

Cyanobacteria blooms are a risk to environmental health and public safety due to the potent toxins certain cyanobacteria can produce. These nuisance organisms can be removed from water bodies by biomass flocculation and sedimentation. Here, we studied the efficacy of combinations of a low dose coagulant (poly-aluminium chloride—PAC—or chitosan) with different ballast compounds (red soil, bauxite, gravel, aluminium modified zeolite and lanthanum modified bentonite) to remove cyanobacterial biomass from water collected in Funil Reservoir (Brazil). We tested the effect of different cyanobacterial biomass concentrations on removal efficiency. We also examined if zeta potential was altered by treatments. Addition of low doses of PAC and chitosan (1–8 mg Al L-1) to the cyanobacterial suspensions caused flock formation, but did not settle the cyanobacteria. When those low dose coagulants were combined with ballast, effective settling in a dose-dependent way up to 99.7% removal of the flocks could be achieved without any effect on the zeta potential and thus without potential membrane damage. Removal efficacy was influenced by the cyanobacterial biomass and at higher biomass more ballast was needed to achieve good removal. The combined coagulant-ballast technique provides a promising alternative to algaecides in lakes, ponds and reservoirs.