Relationship between the spatial scale and biotic variability in a wetland ecotone

✍ Scribed by Jurek Kolasa; Lisa Weber

• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 1995
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 542 KB
• Volume: 303
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1573-5141
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00034044

✦ Synopsis

We studied potential effects of the expansion of a wetland ecotone on phytoplankton communities . The expansion of ecotone width and emergence of a mosaic of habitats are expected outcomes of a reduction of carp numbers and a consequent managed vegetation recovery . Specifically, we investigated the effects of decreasing size of open water cells on species richness, abundance and diversity . In a set of experimental enclosures of four different sizes we sampled phytoplankton weekly during 1991 . The phytoplankton communities showed similar patterns of seasonal change but no clear differences in species abundance or richness that could be attributed to the system size . Notably, however, the magnitude of variation in the community structure metrics responded strongly to the enclosure size . This indicates that the importance of scale may not be fully appreciated when analyzed in the light of standard community measures . We tentatively conclude that the variation in species composition, individual responses, richness, and abundance may result in an increasing diversification of the wetland ecotone as the recovery of vegetation advances .