B2-251, Department of Biology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, N2L 3G1, Canada.
Sci Rep. 2021 Jan 11;11(1):429. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-80027-4.
A major focus in community ecology is understanding how biological interactions and environmental conditions shape horizontal communities. However, few studies have explored whether cross-community interactions are consistent or non-stationary across environmental gradients. Using the relative abundance of birds, aquatic macroinvertebrates and plants, we examined how cross-community congruence varied between short and long-hydroperiod prairie pothole wetlands in southern Alberta. These wetlands are structured by their hydroperiod: the length of time that ponded water is present in the wetland. We compared the strength of cross-community congruence and the strength of congruence between each horizontal community and wetland hydroperiod in wetlands that typically contain ponded water throughout the year to wetlands that dry up every summer. The strength of cross-community relationships was similar between more permanent and more ephemeral wetland classes, suggesting that biological interactions have a near equivalent role in shaping community composition, regardless of hydroperiod. However, because cross-community congruence, measured as the Procrustes pseudo-R value, was, on average, 77% ± SE 12% greater than that between each horizontal community and measures of wetland hydroperiod, we concluded that community structure is not shaped by hydroperiod alone. We attribute the observed cross-community congruence to (1) plants and aquatic macroinvertebrates influence birds through habitat and food provisioning, and (2) birds influence plants and aquatic macroinvertebrates by dispersing their propagules.
群落生态学的一个主要重点是了解生物相互作用和环境条件如何塑造水平群落。然而，很少有研究探讨跨群落相互作用是否在环境梯度上一致或非稳定。我们使用鸟类、水生大型无脊椎动物和植物的相对丰度，研究了艾伯塔省南部短水期和长水期草原洼地湿地之间跨群落一致性的变化。这些湿地由其水期结构决定：池塘水在湿地中存在的时间长度。我们比较了全年有积水的湿地和每年夏季干涸的湿地之间跨群落一致性的强度和每个水平群落与湿地水期之间的一致性强度。永久性更强和短暂性更强的湿地类型之间的跨群落关系强度相似，这表明生物相互作用在塑造群落组成方面具有同等作用，而与水期无关。然而，由于跨群落一致性（以普罗斯特伪 R 值衡量）平均比每个水平群落与湿地水期之间的一致性高 77%±SE12%，我们得出结论，群落结构不仅仅由水期决定。我们将观察到的跨群落一致性归因于：（1）植物和水生大型无脊椎动物通过提供栖息地和食物来影响鸟类；（2）鸟类通过传播其繁殖体来影响植物和水生大型无脊椎动物。
