Determinants of Cyanobacteria and Algae Diversity in Natural Freshwater Micro-Ecosystems

In this context, estimating the contributions of single sites to overall beta diversity (LCBD—Local Contribution to Beta Diversity, i.e., indicator of site's ecological uniqueness) or partitioning overall beta diversity into contributions of individual species (SCBD—Species Contribution to Beta Diversity, i.e., degree of variation of individual species across the study area) has proven to be a good approach to improve the knowledge of drivers of beta diversity. The number of studies on beta diversity in hyperdiverse environments, such as the Neotropics, is still scarce. We explored the contributions of each site and species to the overall cyanobacteria and algae beta diversity of 77 natural freshwater micro-ecosystems (i.e., tank bromeliads) of a neotropical ecosystem. We observed that LCBD was negatively related to Shannon diversity, turbidity and luminosity (% canopy cover). The negative relationship between LCBD and Shannon diversity indicates that micro ecosystems with less diversity reflect unique characteristics, and LCBD values can predict these environments. In our study, high LCBD values indicated environments in need of restoration, that is, poor in species richness and with greater turbidity and luminosity, showing that most bromeliad tanks presented high species diversity and low turbidity and luminosity.