Patterns of abundance and co‐occurrence in aquatic plant communities

Abstract

Aquatic plants are well suited as subjects for studies on the distribution and abundance of co-occurring species, especially due to the simple structure of their communities, well defined toposequences and relatively easily measurable environmental factors. Here we show that underwater plants occurring in semi-natural lakes form stable communities, where species interactions dominate over dispersal dynamics to form a modular community structure with a high degree of zonation (turnover) and low within-module species richness. In turn, human-induced disturbance largely destroyed the modular structure. Our results indicate that (1) species abundance distributions (SADs) of underwater plant communities are well described by the lognormal model; (2) environmental characters did not significantly influence the SADs of underwater plant communities; (3) log-series SADs do not indicate specific types of community organization; (4) in our lake communities only few satellites (tourists) occur; (5) the co-occurrence of species is highly dependent on the turnover across lakes and water depth zones; and (6) species zonation is a function of lake properties.

Aquatic vegetation in deep lakes: Macrophyte co-occurrence patterns and environmental determinants

“…These findings are consistent with those reported by the few authors who have investigated macrophyte co-occurrence models (Boschilia et al, 2008;Logue et al, 2011;Chmara et al, 2013). When Boschilia and colleagues (2008) investigated the C-score at a coarse spatial scale of analysis in several lagoons across the Paraná River floodplain, they found a non-random macrophyte arrangement due to ecological differences.…”

“…This aspect has previously investigated exclusively (Shipley and Keddy, 1987), in lacustrine shoreline vegetation (Keddy, 1983), in a heterogeneous set of shallow lakes (Chmara et al, 2013), and in tropical floodplain lagoons (Boschilia et al, 2008). Indeed, the null model analysis we performed showed that deep lake macrophytes interact, as a whole, in a non-random fashion and some explanatory ecological factors drive macrophyte patterns (LR, T, within the lakes; Chla, Cond and sediment parameters between the lakes).…”

“…With regard to macrophyte communities, the majority of researchers have not taken into account the potential causality or randomness of their co-occurrence (Penning et al, 2008a), and very few works have evaluated the factors that may influence aquatic vegetation itself (Boschilia et al, 2008;Logue et al, 2011;Chmara et al, 2013). In any case, we exclude the possibility that macrophyte communities respond randomly to environmental gradients.…”

The relationships between structural and functional diversity within and among macrophyte communities in lakes

“…The latter factor, as already mentioned, affects the concentration of inorganic carbon forms in water. The other is that species richness, especially in shallow lakes, is subject to stochastic events such as water fluctuation (Rørslett 1991;Szmeja, 1994) and by the dominance of species interactions over their dispersal dynamics (Chmara et al, 2013). Moreover, in submerged plant communities, the β Simpson diversity index is lower than the α-diversity level and is much smaller than the β species richness (Tab.…”

“…In lakes with minor signs of human pressure, submerged plants form communities wherein species interactions dominate over dispersal dynamics to form a highly zoned structure (Chmara et al, 2013). This means that the α-diversity level need not refer to the whole lake but, rather, to its bottom sections (i.e., depth zones).…”