What factors determine the composition and abundance of freshwater communities? We know that smaller scale processes, such as soil or water chemistry, and broader scale processes, such as regional climate, are both important. However, few studies consider how the importance of these processes changes through time to impact the structure of communities.
In a recent study, former Queen’s Biology PhD student Dr. James Sinclair, Professor Dr. Shelley Arnott, Associate Professor Dr. Bill Nelson, and former BSc thesis student Kaitlyn Brougham compared environmental and spatial drivers of community composition across time using zooplankton from 29 lakes in southern Ontario surveyed over four years.
Sinclair et al. confirm that some local and regional-scale processes are consistent drivers of zooplankton communities, such as those that exhibit little to no inter-annual variation (like geomorphology). Conversely, other factors varied in their contributions over time, such as lake pH and nutrient concentrations. The researchers’ work demonstrates the importance of considering factors that vary on different scales of both time and space when determining drivers of aquatic invertebrate zooplankton composition. To learn more, read their article in the Journal of Biogeography.
