Community structure of invertebrate fauna in Central Chilean Rivers

Abstract

Aim River systems of Central Chile are short, steep and fast flowing. They are characterized by discharge regimes dominated by rainfall and snowmelt. Invertebrate fauna is highly endemic. This study aimed to describe the community structure of invertebrate in eight river systems in Central Chile (33-39°S) using species co-occurrence and niche sharing null models. Methods Invertebrate samples were collected from Central Chilean rivers (33-39°S), data were analyzed co-occurrence species and niche sharing null models for determine potential structuring patterns. Results The results revealed the presence of non-structured patterns in co-occurrence considering each site as well as all sites, that is most probably an effect of presence of many repeated species in the studied sites. Furthermore, we found the existence of niche overlap due to interspecific competition at each site and among all sites. The results obtained from these river systems corroborate observations from Chilean Patagonian Rivers. Conclusion This study contributes to understanding of biogeographical and ecological patterns of invertebrate communities in central Chilean Rivers and provide foundations for more complex ecological studies.

Community structure of benthic invertebrates in the Allipén River basin, North Patagonia, Araucania region (38º S, Chile)

“…The results observed from co-occurrence null model analysis, revealed the absence of structuring pattern in species associations, it is due probably the presence of many species repeated in analyzed sites (Tondoh, 2006;Tiho and Josens, 2007), that is a similar situation observed for Chilean inland waters (De los Ríos et al, 2019;De los Ríos-Escalante et al, 2015b).…”

“…In this sense, null models are a powerful statistical tool to describe the ecological mechanisms that drive the structure of an ecological community and the underlying diversity patterns (De los Ríos et al, 2019). Null models for the co-occurrence of species assume a random pattern of associations (Tiho and Josens, 2007), and the absence of overlapping niches, that is, the absence of interspecific competition (Gotelli and Ellison, 2013;Carvajal-Quintero et al, 2015).…”