Partitioning the impact of environmental drivers and species interactions in dynamic aquatic communities

Ecosphere

Oleksandra Ieromina¹  S. Henrik Barmentlo²  Martina G. Vijver²  Maarten Schrama²  Ellen Cieraad²  C. J. M. Musters²  Peter M. van Bodegom²  Ellard R. Hunting³ 

[1] Dutch Board for the Authorisation of Plant Protection Products and Biocides (Ctgb) Ede The Netherlands;Institute of Environmental Sciences Leiden University Leiden The Netherlands;School of Biological Sciences University of Bristol Bristol UK;

关键词: abiotic;    anthropogenic stressors;    biotic;    bottom‐up;    random forest;    seasonal change;   

DOI  :  10.1002/ecs2.2910

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Abstract Temperate aquatic communities are highly diverse and seasonally variable, due to internal biotic processes and environmental drivers, including human‐induced stressors. The impact of drivers on species abundance is supposed to differ fundamentally depending on whether populations are experiencing limitations, which may shift over the season. However, an integrated understanding of how drivers structure communities seasonally is currently lacking. In order to partition the effect of drivers, we used random forests to quantify interactions between all taxa and environmental factors using macrofaunal data from 18 agricultural ditches sampled over two years. We found that, over the agricultural season, taxon abundance became increasingly better predicted by the abundances of co‐occurring taxa and nutrients compared to other abiotic factors, including pesticides. Our approach provides fundamental insights in community dynamics and highlights the need to consider changes in species interactions to understand the effects of anthropogenic stressors.

【 授权许可】

Unknown