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Strong Zonation Of Benthic Communities Across A Tidal Freshwater Height Gradient, Jack R. Mclachlan, Jessica M. Haghkerdar, Hamish S. Greig

Biology and Ecology Faculty Scholarship

Trade-offs associated with environmental gradients generate patterns of diversity and govern community organisation in a landscape. In freshwaters, benthic community structure is driven by trade-offs along generally orthogonal gradients of habitat permanence and predation—where ephemeral systems are physiologically harsh because of drying stress, but inhabitants are less likely to be under the intense predation pressure of more permanent waterbodies. However, in tidal freshwaters, these two stressors are compounding, and the trade-offs associated with them are decoupled.
2. We investigated benthic community structure in a tidal freshwater habitat. These communities experience a suite of conditions atypical for a freshwater habitat: twice-daily …