Regional and local determinants of macrophyte community compositions in high-latitude lakes of Finland

Abstract

Species distributions are structured by regional and local determinants, which operate at multiple spatial and temporal scales. The purpose of our work was to distinguish the relative roles of local variables, climate, geographical location and post glaciation condition (i.e. delineation between supra-and subaquatic lakes during the post-glacial Anculys Lake) in explaining variation in macrophyte community composition of all taxa, helophytes and hydrophytes. In addition, we investigated how these four explanatory variable groups affected macrophyte strategy groups based on Grime's classification. Using partial linear regression and variation partitioning, we found that macrophyte communities are primarily filtered by local determinants together with regional characteristics at the studied spatial scale. We further evidenced that post glaciation condition indirectly influenced on local water quality variables, which in turn directly contributed to the macrophyte communities. We thus suggest that regional determinants interact with local-scale abiotic factors in explaining macrophyte community patterns and examining only regional or local factors is not sufficient for understanding how aquatic macrophyte communities are structured locally and regionally.

Global patterns in the metacommunity structuring of lake macrophytes: regional variations and driving factors

“…However, our simple ranked lake age variable may not be sensitive enough to capture historical effects on macrophyte communities. For example, Alahuhta et al (2018) found that melting of glacial sheet ca. 10 000 years ago created variable local environmental conditions in the boreal landscape, further affecting present-day community composition of lake macrophytes in Finland.…”

Environmental effects on community productivity of aquatic macrophytes are mediated by species and functional composition

“…Understanding how environmental gradients control macrophytes productivity is greatly important in sustaining freshwater ecosystems (Carpenter & Lodge, ; Chambers, Lacoul, Murphy, & Thomaz, ; Engelhardt & Ritchie, ). Ultimately, the quantity and distribution of productivity of macrophytes in freshwater ecosystems is mainly determined by enormous local and regional factors (Alahuhta, Hellsten, Kuoppala, & Riihimäki, ; Capers, Selsky, & Bugbee, ; Duarte & Kalff, ; Fu et al, ; Kuglerová, Jansson, Sponseller, Laudon, & Malmrenöfält, ; Lougheed, Crosbie, & Chow‐Fraser, ; Salgado et al, ), including climate (e.g., altitude and water temperature), water quality (e.g., lake water transparency, eutrophication), habitat heterogeneity, and local topographic gradients (e.g., water depth). In freshwater habitats, regional climate variables are the fundamental control on rates of physiological metabolism and biological processes, and local light and nutrient availability support the growth of macrophytes (Alahuhta et al, ; Capers et al, ; Lougheed et al, ), both determining biomass production of macrophytes.…”

“…Although these environmental variables caused significant patterns of macrophytes community (Spence, , Lougheed et al, , Capers et al, , Kuglerová et al, , Alahuhta et al, ,) and shifts in functional compositions (Engelhardt, ; Fu, Zhong, Yuan, Ni, et al, ; Fu et al, ; Xiong, Nilsson, Johansson, & Jansson, ), numerous studies have reported that not only species diversity but also trait distribution can affect productivity of macrophytes community (Engelhardt & Ritchie, , Fu, Zhong, Yuan, Ni, et al, , Fu et al, ), implying that environments might affect productivity either directly or indirectly through changes in the diversity of species and traits. Because resource use efficiency is mirrored by the functional traits of organisms (Cornelissen et al, ; Violle et al, ; Weiher & Keddy, ), functional diversity may be a more direct measure of a community's capacity for biomass production than species richness (McGill, Enquist, Weiher, & Westoby, ; Petchey & Gaston, ).…”

Species richness and taxonomic distinctness of lake macrophytes along environmental gradients in two continents

“…For example, macrophyte species richness followed a classical latitudinal gradient in Fennoscandian lakes , whereas a reversed latitudinal gradient was observed for macrophyte species richness in the Midwestern U.S.A. (Alahuhta, 2015). This kind of contrasting diversity patterns can occur because of, for example, different historic legacies, spatial scales, regional species pools, local environmental conditions, biotic relationships and spatial processes (Alahuhta & Heino, 2013;Alahuhta, Hellsten, Kuoppala, & Riihim€ aki, 2016;Heino, Melo, Siqueira, et al, 2015;Jackson, Peres-Neto, & Olden, 2001). In addition to these deterministic and stochastic factors, the use of various statistical methods to investigate freshwater biodiversity patterns and increasing statistical complexity in ecology makes it challenging to compare results originating from different studies (Liebhold & Gurevitch, 2002).…”

“…Diversity of the same biological group can show completely different patterns in relation to equivalent ecological gradients between any two regions Alahuhta & Heino, 2013;Alahuhta, Virtala, et al, 2017;Heino, Gr€ onroos, Soininen, Virtanen, & Muotka, 2012;Tonkin, Heino, Sundermann, Haase, & J€ ahnig, 2016). This kind of contrasting diversity patterns can occur because of, for example, different historic legacies, spatial scales, regional species pools, local environmental conditions, biotic relationships and spatial processes (Alahuhta & Heino, 2013;Alahuhta, Hellsten, Kuoppala, & Riihim€ aki, 2016;Heino, Melo, Siqueira, et al, 2015;Jackson, Peres-Neto, & Olden, 2001). This kind of contrasting diversity patterns can occur because of, for example, different historic legacies, spatial scales, regional species pools, local environmental conditions, biotic relationships and spatial processes (Alahuhta & Heino, 2013;Alahuhta, Hellsten, Kuoppala, & Riihim€ aki, 2016;Heino, Melo, Siqueira, et al, 2015;Jackson, Peres-Neto, & Olden, 2001).…”