Temporary and permanent wetland macroinvertebrate communities: Phylogenetic structure through time

Abstract

Water permanence has been previously identified as an important factor affecting macroinvertebrate diversity and abundance in wetlands. Here, we repeatedly sampled the macroinvertebrate communities in 16 permanent and 14 temporary wetlands in Alberta, Canada. Temporary wetlands were predicted to have more closely related taxa and reduced species richness due to the specialized adaptations required to survive in a temporary habitat. We analyzed the species richness (SR) and phylogenetic structure of communities, focusing on three measures of relatedness: Phylogenetic Distance (PD), Net Related Index (NRI) and Nearest Taxon Index (NTI). We also examined the influence of taxonomic scale on resulting phylogenetic structure. Overall, taxa were more diverse and abundant in permanent wetlands. As expected, PD and SR were greatest in permanent wetlands. NTI and NRI metrics suggest permanent wetland communities are primarily structured by biotic interactions, such as competition and predation. Conversely, temporary wetland communities appear to be affected more by environmental filtering, with fewer groups being able to survive and reproduce in the relatively limited time that these environments contain water. Insect and dipteran assemblages differed from the patterns found when examining all taxa together for communities for both permanent and temporary wetlands, tending to become more phylogenetically clustered as the season progressed. Conversely, lophotrochozoan and gastropod assemblages closely matched the patterns observed for full communities in permanent wetlands, suggesting a role for biotic interactions. Given the contrasting patterns observed for permanent and temporary wetlands, macroinvertebrate diversity at the landscape level may be best conserved by maintaining both habitat types.