Blowing in the wind: how many roads can a phytoplanktont walk down? A synthesis on phytoplankton biogeography and spatial processes

Abstract

The selected theme of the 17th Workshop of the International Association for Phytoplankton Taxonomy and Ecology (IAP), “Biogeography and Spatial Patterns of Biodiversity of Freshwater Phytoplankton,” offered the opportunity to explore one neglected aspect of phytoplankton ecology: the distribution of species in the geographic space. This paper summarizes the outcomes of 20 selected contributions among those presented at the workshop. The articles report the results from studies carried out in five continents (only Oceania is not represented) and on a wide array of aquatic ecosystems (deep and shallow natural lakes, man-made lakes, temporary and permanent ponds, rivers). The topics analyzed by the contributors are related to Island Biogeography paradigms, dispersal vectors, survival strategies, environmental filters, dispersal distances, vertical and horizontal spatial variability of phytoplankton between and within water bodies, and of course, invasive algae. The overall analysis of the results presented clearly demonstrates that, as for many others organisms, there are “rules” governing freshwater phytoplankton spatial patterns and that these organisms also have a true biogeography, as nowadays is quite evident for several other groups in the same range of size. We can definitively conclude that the statement “Everything is everywhere” is obsolete, even though human activities tend to homogenize species distribution in the biosphere.