Understanding the processes that shape biodiversity and community composition is the central aim of metacommunity ecology. Pondscapes are useful model objects for studying landscape-level processes due to the high density of habitats which are easy to sample, and their overall high contribution to the regional species pool. Here, we studied the relative roles of space and environment in shaping species richness and community composition of a well-delineated network of 54 bomb crater ponds in Hungary. These man-made ponds are of the same age, similar size and shape, and there are strong underlying gradients in the landscape which makes this an ideal study system. We specifically tested the role of network centrality for species richness and eigenvector-based spatial arrangement for community composition for a range of organism groups (prokaryotes, microeukaryotes, zooplankton, macroinvertebrates and amphibians). We found that environmental filtering is the predominant driving force for community dynamics but a spatial signal was also detectable, especially for the passively dispersing groups. This highlights the importance of studying and protecting ponds as parts of a network rather than focusing on individual ponds.

Primary Presenter: Barbara Barta, Centre for Ecological Research/ ELTE Eötvös Loránd University (barta.barbara@ecolres.hu)

Authors:

Barbara Barta, Institute of Aquatic Ecology, Centre for Ecological Research; Doctoral School of Biology, Institute of Biology, ELTE Eötvös Loránd University  ()

Attila Szabo, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences; Institute of Aquatic Ecology, Centre for Ecological Research  ()

Beata Szabo, Institute of Aquatic Ecology, Centre for Ecological Research; National Multidisciplinary Laboratory for Climate Change, Centre for Ecological Research  ()

Csaba Vad, Institute of Aquatic Ecology, Centre for Ecological Research; National Multidisciplinary Laboratory for Climate Change, Centre for Ecological Research; KU Leuven  ()

Zsofia Horvath, Institute of Aquatic Ecology, Centre for Ecological Research; National Multidisciplinary Laboratory for Climate Change, Centre for Ecological Research; KU Leuven  ()