Diatom Diversity and Biogeography Across Tropical South America

Spatial and Temporal Ecological Uniqueness of Andean Diatom Communities Are Correlated With Climate, Geodiversity and Long-Term Limnological Change

“…Previous studies have demonstrated that species composition and taxonomic richness of lake diatom communities in the tropical South America are jointly structured by the local (water chemistry) and regional environmental factors (aquatic connectivity and climate) (Benito et al, 2018b,a). Moreover, biogeographic patterns emerge after determining latitudinal gradients of species richness and estimating the role of dispersal dynamics on diatom community structure (Benito and Fritz, 2020). In the analyses presented here, the calculation of LCBD introduced an additional biodiversity metric for Neotropical diatom metacommunities and biogeography studies.…”

“…Biodiversity studies of Neotropical macroorganisms have historically recognized the roles of environmental, climatic, and geological factors in structuring communities at different spatial and temporal scales (Banda et al, 2016), but their influences on microorganisms are not well characterized (Benito and Fritz, 2020). Diatoms, unicellular siliceous algae, are a very speciesrich biological group that disperses widely, responds to local (e.g., limnological) and regional (e.g., climatic) variables, has different traits for resource use and resistance to disturbance, and their remains preserve in lake sediments.…”

Frustulia tunariensis sp. nov. (Bacillariophyceae) from the Andes of Bolivia, South America

“…In the absence of detailed morphological analyses, it is extremely difficult to assess if the common European species reported for the Bolivian Altiplano (e.g., F. crassinervia, F. rhomboides, F. saxonica and F. vulgaris) do occur in Andean ecosystems. Also, with no means to verify the taxonomy of these taxa in Frustulia, making deep biogeographic interpretations is rather risky (e.g., [22]) because there is no way to know what is really being represented in lists or whether we are dealing with species complexes, in which case, SEM information is pivotal in solving species identities [1,2].…”

“…However, all these references are insufficient to show the variation in the reported taxa at the regional or continental levels, since the numbers of samples are insufficient to represent the type of habitats studied or the total diversity of habitats in the continent (own observation of the cited literature, but also see a more general discussion in [7]). This is a major drawback for applied studies including biogeography [22]. On the other hand, those articles solely containing taxa lists, but lacking cross-referencing or illustrations, impede an in-depth historical analysis of the genus in South America.…”

Diatom and macroinvertebrate communities dynamic: A co-occurrence pattern analysis on plastic substrates

“…Unfortunately, generalities of the distribution patterns of unicellular organisms are largely unexplored, and this is also true for freshwater microscopic diatoms (6). On the other hand, macroinvertebrates community assemblages are well studied but there is an important lack of knowledge in describing the possible interaction between them and diatom assemblages on plastic supports (19).…”