Spatial and local environmental factors outweigh geo-climatic gradients in structuring taxonomically and trait-based β-diversity of benthic algae

Aim

Understanding the variation in biodiversity and its underlying drivers and mechanisms is a core task in biogeography and ecology. We examined (a) the relative contributions of species replacement (i.e., turnover) and richness difference (i.e., nestedness) to taxonomically and trait-based β-diversity of stream benthic algae; (b) whether these two facets of β-diversity are correlated with each other; and (c) the relative contributions of local environmental, geo-climatic and spatial factors to the two facets of β-diversity and their components.

Location

Hun-Tai River Basin, northeastern China.

Taxon

Stream benthic algae.

Methods

A total of 157 sites were sampled. Mantel tests were used to examine the complementarities between the two facets of β-diversity and their components. Distance-based redundancy analysis and variation partitioning were utilized to investigate the relative contributions of local environmental, geo-climatic and spatial factors t...