Environmental, spatial, and temporal drivers of multiple facets of beta diversity from a zooplankton metacommunity in two tropical urbanized rivers

Abstract

Environmental, spatial, and temporal factors play an important role in beta diversity in metacommunities. Most studies are based only on species identity, and little is known about how these factors affect multiple facets of diversity. Here, we assessed the effect of local (chemical, physical, and hydrological), spatial, and temporal variables on taxonomic, functional, and phylogenetic beta diversity in a zooplankton metacommunity in two urban rivers. The partition of the beta diversity into its components - replacement and abundance difference - was performed using the Bray-Curtis index. Distance-based redundancy analysis and variation partitioning were used to assess the importance of predictors for the beta diversity. We found that beta diversity was high and mostly influenced by environmental factors and, to a lesser extent, by spatial and temporal factors in all facets. The abundance difference was the dominant component of beta diversity in all facets and was mainly explained by the environment and space, while replacement had a low explanation, in general, and was more related to temporal factors. These results reflect anthropic pressures in these environments and suggest that a multifaceted approach to beta diversity provides complementary information about the processes structuring the metacommunity and about conservation strategies of these impacted environments.