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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences
Taking Apart The Time Machine: Investigating Space-For-Time Substitution Modeling In The Florida Everglades, Theresa Kelly Brown
Taking Apart The Time Machine: Investigating Space-For-Time Substitution Modeling In The Florida Everglades, Theresa Kelly Brown
FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Space-for-Time substitution modeling has been used with increasing frequency to identify functional relationships between environmental drivers and ecological responses. I investigated the use of space-for-time substitution as a null model and beta diversity as a validity test for this null model in the Greater Everglades aquatic metacommunity. I began by conducting a literature review and analysis to investigate the suitability of the space-for-time substitution method as a null model. I then analyzed beta diversity of the Greater Everglades aquatic metacommunity through a sums-of-squares approach. Finally, I tested for correlation between the beta diversity analysis and the space-for-time models. Results indicate …
Examining Gradients In Novelty: Native And Non-Native Fish Assemblages In Everglades Canals, David A. Gandy
Examining Gradients In Novelty: Native And Non-Native Fish Assemblages In Everglades Canals, David A. Gandy
FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Novel ecosystems emerge from alterations to historic abiotic regimes and contain new species combinations. Everglades canals offer an opportunity to understand the function of novel habitat for native and non-native fishes and how novel conditions in turn influence distribution, abundance and assembly patterns. I examined native and non-native fish assemblages collected across a gradient in novelty, defined by the loss of wetland connectivity and habitat complexity. As novelty increased, native species richness and abundance strongly declined, and the contribution of non-natives increased. Community structure vastly differed among canals and was strongly influenced by spatial factors and secondarily by hydrological factors. …